Amanda Nell Eu, director of breakout film “Tiger Stripes,” has disowned the censored version of the movie that launched in her native Malaysia on Thursday.
“I do not stand behind the cut that will be shown in local cinemas […] the film that will be shown in local cinemas is not the film that we made, and it is not the film that won the Grand Prize of the Critics Week in Cannes,” said Eu in a statement (see below for full letter).
The debut feature had received wide acclaim as the first Malaysian film in many years to play in Cannes, the first by a Malaysian woman director. It won a prize as best picture in Cannes Critics’ Week sidebar, will be the opening film of the Singapore International Film Festival and has been selected as Malaysia’s Oscar contender.
Pitched somewhere between a coming-of-age drama and a body horror movie, the film tells the story of a 12-year-old who becomes the first among her friends to reach puberty. After she discovers a terrifying secret about her body and is ostracized by her school friends, she eventually learns to embrace her true self and fight for freedom.
Eu is restricted from disclosing the specific scenes that have been cut from the film. However, she describes the deleted material as conveying the “joy of being a young girl in Malaysia [..] who is maybe different from the rest, misunderstood, or has the urge to express herself differently from others.”
While much of the narrative concerns the interactions between the school students or the girl and her parents, it contains scenes that quietly criticize Malaysian societal prudishness and patriarchy. The head teacher is an authoritarian caricature, the school is actively unsympathetic of the girl’s menstruation and at another point a student complains that the ethnically Chinese pupils get better marks than the Malays.
With eight different bodies involved, including the Ministry of Home Affairs, a Film Censorship Board (LPF) and a Federal Islamic Authority (JAKIM), Malaysian governments of all political hues have a long history of censoring local and imported movies.
Their reasons range from religious sensitivity and promotion of societal harmony to a tough anti-LGBT stance and protecting the state’s international political relations.
“Being dictated on what we can or cannot show and limiting artistic voices in Malaysia is detrimental to our society. We have always believed that the power of art is to open healthy discussion, to hear from diverse voices and stories, and to learn more about each other. In our opinion, the safest way to speak out, question and discuss has always been through art, and we believe and respect that the Malaysian audience has the maturity to make decisions based on their own critical choices,” said Eu.
The conservative country’s tussles with Hollywood studios have become more marked in recent years as the studios seek to become more inclusive and diverse.
In 2017, the LPF said that it wanted to cut four minutes from Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” far more than the three second “Gay moment” that irked regulators in some other countries. Disney refused and pulled the planned release from Malaysia.
A similar scenario played out with “Thor: Love and Thunder” and “Lightyear” with Disney not going forward with the planned releases. Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Zahidi Zainul Abidin, said afterwards that the country is committed to curtailing the spread of LGBT culture and that it will take severe action against individuals found promoting such elements.” JAKIM also organizes gay conversion programs to reorient LGBT people to accepted Muslim standards.
The deeply conservative stance also deprives the country of high-profile western entertainment acts. Taylor Swift omitted Malaysia from her Eras tour. Her smash hit “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” concert film will not be released in Malaysia.
Amanda Nell Eu’s statement in full:
“Dear all who have been anticipating the release of ‘Tiger Stripes’ in Malaysia,
As many of you know, ‘Tiger Stripes’ will have a very limited release in local cinemas on 19th October. It’s actually been so beautiful to see the buzz and excitement around it. I want to thank all of you for this – ‘Tiger Stripes’ was made with Malaysians in mind as my priority audience; therefore, showing it back home would have been the most meaningful experience for me.
Unfortunately, though, I have to say that I do not stand behind the cut that will be shown in local cinemas. Living as an artist and a filmmaker in Malaysia, we are all used to having our work and voice censored. While I am not here to attack the censorship board, I am here to state that the film that will be shown in local cinemas is not the film that we made, and it is not the film that won the Grand Prize of Critics Week in Cannes.
What has been censored from the film is the very joy of being a young girl in Malaysia. A young girl who is maybe different from the rest, misunderstood, or has the urge to express herself differently from others – a young girl who is innocent and curious about the world around her and fights for her existence in this world. Our production company, Ghost Grrrl Pictures’ very ethos is to fight for these voices and to celebrate a safe space for freedom of expression. It saddens us that this type of girl has to be censored from public view, and although we respect different opinions and sensitivities in our country, we wish that we had more freedom to discuss things openly and not quickly condemn and punish each other or have to hide away from things that we are afraid of. This is what art does best, and it is why we deeply love it and continue to pursue it in our lives – to discuss, question and express freely.
As an artist living in Malaysia, I am grateful that I can find ways not to have to self-censor my work. I have an incredible team and support network that has allowed me to have full creative control over my voice and the stories I want to tell, and so, coming from this privilege, I have never believed or felt the need to self-censor. My producer, Foo Fei Ling and I started Ghost Grrrl Pictures to have this creative freedom.
We will continue to fight and urge all artists not to self-censor and to try to find other avenues to deal with censorship in our country – it’s a huge struggle, we know, emotionally and financially, and not to mention sometimes our safety is jeopardized because of this. But let’s keep doing it, guys!
Being dictated on what we can or cannot show and limiting artistic voices in Malaysia is detrimental to our society. We have always believed that the power of art is to open healthy discussion, to hear from diverse voices and stories, and to learn more about each other. In our opinion, the safest way to speak out, question and discuss has always been through art, and we believe and respect that the Malaysian audience has the maturity to make decisions based on their own critical choices.
This is really all I have to say regarding the local release of Tiger Stripes. This statement, we know, will financially hurt our company and many parties involved, and we are truly sorry for that, but we also believe in our right to share our opinions involving the freedom of our voice and expression as Malaysians.
In other news, we are very proud to be Malaysia’s official entry for the Academy Awards and happy to see that our Malaysian film has been appreciated worldwide during our festival travels. Ghost Grrrl Pictures and our larger team will try our best to make sure Malaysians will one day get to see the film in full uncensored glory, director’s cut… but legally, of course!!
Love to you, and THANK YOU for all the support so far, Amanda.”
