Anwar maintains Finas denied Afdlin on political grounds

 

PKR president Anwar Ibrahim has demanded a review of the grant application from actor-director Afdlin Shauki. (Facebook pic)

PETALING JAYA: Opposition leader and PKR president Anwar Ibrahim has accused Finas, the national film development corporation, of having rejected a grant application from actor-director Afdlin Shauki out of political motives.

His accusation came in a Facebook posting four days after Finas had said that Afdlin’s application for his historical film Angel Of Sandakan had been rejected because it “did not meet their conditions”.

“The rejection of Afdlin Shauki’s grant application by Finas is very unfortunate. This rejection is politically motivated and the reasons given by Finas to deny the allegations are shallow and superficial,” Anwar said in his posting.

Anwar said while the film agency is helmed by politicians, he believed the issue could have been managed without political interference. He demanded that Afdlin’s application be reviewed.

Finas chairman Zakaria Abdul Hamid was quoted in a news report last Friday saying that Afdlin’s film proposal “did not pass the test” as his team did not present its storyline convincingly during the pitching session.

Afdlin has claimed that his application was rejected because of his support for PKR, which he had joined in March. He had held up Anwar’s leadership qualities and readiness to forgive as the reason for his joining the party.

His grant application was for his historical film Angel Of Sandakan, about British and Australian prisoners of war and the infamous Death March of Sandakan in which 2,434 of them died after being force-marched from Sandakan to Ranau. - FMT