KUALA LUMPUR: Veteran director U-Wei Saari has questioned the National Film Development Corporation's (Finas) decision not to fund his new patriotic film Wangi Jadi Saksi.
In a recent open letter to Finas' chief executive officer Ahmad Idham Ahmad Nadzri, the 67-year-old director whose best known films include Kaki Bakar and Hanyut, said that Finas did not give any reason for turning down his application for funding recently.
"I pitched Wangi Jadi Saksi at 3pm on March 16 via the Zoom application. Things went smoothly, between my team comprising producer Datuk Azmir Saifuddin, Azman Azahar and myself, and Finas' team comprising Mohd Fazli Abdul Aziz and two academicians," said U-Wei in his letter.
"They all gave their thumbs-up to my team's explanation of the new film and didn't ask us any questions, and they're respected experts in their field."
U-Wei later learnt from an e-mail sent to Azmir that Wangi Jadi Saksi's application for funding had been rejected by Finas.
"The official e-mail from Finas was headlined Decision On Digital Content Fund Application, and did not mention 'patriotic film'," he said.
U-Wei claimed that Ahmad Idham knew about Finas' move to reject funding, because the e-mail stated that Finas' decision "came from the top".
"I am sure you (Ahmad Idham) know of this project and the decision," he said.
"If you did use your veto power to decide, you've insulted the intelligence of Finas' experts."
U-Wei has been a jury member of various international film festivals, including the Asia-Pacific Screen Awards, World Cinema Sundance Film Festival and Singapore International Film Festival.
Kaki Bakar was the first Malaysian film to be made an Official Selection at the Cannes International Film Festival 1995.
Hanyut, which was screened in 2016, was based on Joseph Conrad's 1895 novel, Almayer's Folly.
It won Diana Danielle Best Supporting Actress in the Malaysian Film Festival 2017.