“Really,
it is more of a distraction,” the 34-year-old
tells Moviexclusive.com candidly in an exclusive interview
held at the Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF)
Secretariat in Singapore Management University.
The
bespectacled filmmaker adds: “It’d be nice
and ideal to have the film to be shown at home, but
my responsibility is to the work itself.”
Muhammad
is referring to his newest documentary Village People
Radio Show, which showcases the lives and histories
of former members of the banned Communist Party of Malaya.
These men now live in exile as farmers in Southern Thailand.
This is a sequel to The Last Communist (2006), which
was also disallowed in Malaysia.
Regarded
by many as one of the directors to look out for in the
Malaysian New Wave, Muhammad was in Singapore recently
to attend the screening of Village People Radio Show
at the 20th SIFF. The one-night screening welcomed a
full house crowd. The documentary will also be screened
commercially at The Picturehouse soon.
“I
made this film based on curiosity. It’s something
I want to find out. And I’d think it will satisfy
some other people’s curiosity too,” says
Muhammad about his source of inspiration for the film.
“I
hope people can go home with the sense that there are
different ways of telling stories around you. I hope
it moves them in some way.”
The
confident director recalls nothing that his 2-week shoot
wasn’t a difficult one. He is glad that he had
a crew who was more than willing to travel to Southern
Thailand with his for this project.
“I
guess they are curious about the topic too,” he
laughs.
Compared
to The Last Communist, Muhammad feels that this sequel
is more controlled and calculated. He already had everything
in mind when he shot the film, hence the limited 20
hours of footage from the 14 days of shooting.