It was quite surprising to see Malaysia, a country where genre literature and films are often censored or outright banned, announce a low-budget supernatural horror movie as its official submission for the best international film category at the next Academy Awards. Roh (2019), which translates as Soul , is the debut feature of Kuala Lumpur-based film director Emir Ezwan. His clever short film RM 10 (2016), which follows the journey of a 10 Malaysian ringgit banknote as it changes hands on a sultry Kuala Lumpur night, won the Festival Filem Malaysia’s best short film award in 2016. But having his first feature film selected to represent the country at the next Academy Awards seemed implausible even to Emir. “Choosing a horror for such an important festival is odd, but I’m truly humbled,” he tells the Post . “I honestly think there isn’t any chance to win, but that’s not the point. I hope Roh (Soul) will bring a new wave of interest in Malaysian films all over.” That’s exactly what the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia – known as Finas, it is the Malaysian equivalent of the US Motion Picture Association – currently wants in order to raise the global profile of Malaysian cinema, and a first step is submitting entries more consistently to international festivals. Between 2004 and 2019, Malaysia only sent five films to the Oscars , namely Puteri Gunung Ledang in 2004, Bunohan in 2012, Lelaki Harapan Dunia in 2015, Redha in 2016, and M for Malaysia in 2019. None snared a coveted nomination. “I doubt that even Roh will win, but it’s all about participating and giving young filmmakers the inspiration to do more regardless of small budgets,” says Ku Mohamad Haris Ku Sulong, a board director of Finas. He agrees that horror isn’t the best match for an Oscar nomination, but says Roh got the highest marks from a jury of industry players who assessed this year’s potential submissions”. Roh was filmed in just two weeks on a budget of 360,000 ringgit (US$89,000) in the Dengkil forest of Selangor, 45km south of Kuala Lumpur. It’s a Southeast Asian spin on the classic demonic horror trope – but since the film starts with a citation from the Koran that is followed by a sequence detailing a pre-Islamic magic ritual, and because all the main characters wear traditional Malay costumes, it stands out from the competition. Mak (Malay for “Mother”, played by Farah Ahmad), her daughter Along (a Malay nickname for firstborns, played by Farah’s real-life daughter Mhia Farhana), and her son Angah (Malay for second child, played by Harith Haziq) are a fatherless family living in a rainforest during an unspecified time of war – a perfectly lonesome setting for the workings of evil, and an evident homage to the ghoulish characters of Kaneto Shindo’s Japanese cult classic Onibaba (1964). These characters’ lives are transformed when a young, silent girl smeared in dark soil and coagulated blood appears at their door. The family take her in, initiating Roh ’s free fall into nightmarish territory. Unlike other Malaysian and Indonesian horror films which rely on cheesy ghosts and frequent jump scares, Roh is subtly atmospheric. The use of a Red Dragon camera enhances the film’s low-budget constraints, exploiting the sharpness of 6k technology to produce effective contrasts between night shots where fire is used to dramatic effect, and crystal-clear daylight sequences that rely on the mysterious surrounding green hell to build up tension and despair. “The feel of dreariness in Roh ’s visuals is meant to mimic the characters’ sequence of experiences through the hostility conjured by the forest,” Emir explains. Even if the film stands a tiny chance of bagging a coveted Oscar nomination, the mere fact that a low-budget Malaysian horror movie has made it to the longlist is very encouraging for independent Malaysian filmmakers. “We have completed three films so far, and are about to shoot a fourth in December,” says Elise Shick Chuin Chong, the producer at Kuman Pictures, the company behind Roh , which is led by Amir Muhammad, a successful pulp fiction publisher and the seasoned director of controversial Malaysian documentaries like The Last Communist (2006) and Malaysian Gods (2009). Kuman’s first film, the Chinese-language psychological horror Two Sisters by James Lee, came out in March 2019. “ Roh did surprisingly well when it finally premiered in local cinemas as soon as they reopened last August after Covid-19 closures,” says Chong, who is very optimistic for the future. “Malaysian audiences started to understand that budget isn’t necessarily equivalent to the quality of a film.” Now it’s for the Academy Awards’ jury to have their say. Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook