Although most us are probably more familiar with Western made movies, short films and documentaries, it must be reminded that there are also plenty of amazing locally made productions.
Recently, a short film which was made by students from Universiti Teknologi MARA’s (UiTM) faculty of Creative Arts Studies has gone viral for all the right reasons.
The short film titled ‘SEPAYUNG’ tells the story of a racist food delivery rider who changed his ways and mindset after an incident.
A misunderstanding
The short film starts off with the food delivery rider receiving an order from a Chinese uncle who had ordered a meal containing pork.
The rider goes on to call the uncle and request if it was okay for him to pass the order to another rider as he was worried about handling pork.
However, much to his surprise, the uncle refused his request, said that he was hungry and promised to give him a tip for his service. “You don’t have to eat it, just handle it and pass it to me”, said the uncle.
To which the rider responded by insisting that it’s not just about eating it and that it’ll be a hassle if he were to come into contact with the pork.
The uncle then said, “That’s how you Malays are. So lazy. Just delivering the food what. If you want to be a rider, you have to follow the customer. We pay you”.
Conflict
Feeling insulted by the uncle’s words, the rider decided to proceed with the order but when he arrived at the uncle’s house, he started lashing out towards the uncle.
“Is it so hard to understand? You’re old, so you should know how to think. No need to be so fussy. When it comes to halal and haram you don’t take it lightly.”
The uncle then responded by criticising his attitude and saying that he shouldn’t complain so much.
This riled the rider up even more who called out the uncle for being disrespectful and said that all Indians and Chinese don’t put themselves in the shoes of Muslims.
As so it happens, an Indian lady who is the neighbour of the Chinese uncle was walking by and she took offence to the rider’s comments.
After she scolded him, the rider ended up walking away from the situation.
Resolution
The pissed off rider then meets up with his other rider friends at an eatery where he shared his experience.
While one of the riders agreed with him and shared his dreadful experience with other members of other races, the other rider called them out for being racist.
The rider told them that it’s because they always stick with people of their race and that they don’t even try to mingle around with people of other races, hence, when they have to deal with someone difficult belonging to another race, they blame it on the race in general.
After becoming even more enraged by his friend’s comments, the rider ends up leaving.
The next scene cuts to a petrol station where the rider was going to pay for his fuel and left his motorbike running with the keys in the ignition.
Little did he know, a pair of men then tried to steal his bike, however, they were prevented from doing so by the same Indian aunty and Chinese uncle he argued with earlier.
The short film concludes with the three of them sitting together on a roadside curb as the police arrests the man who tried to steal his bike.
After a change of heart, the rider then offered his gratitude to the two for helping him and he ends up giving the Indian lady an umbrella as it was about to rain, a subtle nod to the title of the short film.
A beautiful story
The short film has since gone viral and currently sits on over 595,000 views on YouTube. Netizens praised the storyline not just for its plot but also for how it was shot and the creativity behind the students to turn it into reality.
Watch the short film below:
What are your thoughts on it? Let us know in the comments.
