WHAT DEFINES US?

Nik Amir Mustapha challenges us to think about this through his latest film Imaginur

- RUBIN KHOO

"WHAT DO YOU THINK?”

Nik Amir Mustapha responds as the crew, present on the day of our shoot, hypothesise over the plot of the hugely successful Imaginur. “It is fundamentally a love story,” I say, while someone else declares that it is a story about coping with dementia. I direct him to a tweet which dissects the film and attempts to explain the thought process behind the scenes.

But Nik Amir who directed the film is noncommittal in his response, often answering question with a question. As has been written before, the director prefers to leave it to the audience’s imagination.

“After the first couple of screenings, there were a lot of different theories,” he says. “We have an intention, but we don’t want to say what it is.”

At the time of interview, Imaginur had grossed more than RM6 million and counting, substantially more than Nik’s debut film KIL.

“We have the window for the first three days for local cinema,” he explains. “Cinemas decide the fate of films based on the first three days in the cinema but the word of mouth started early on.”

The film which has been labelled a ‘romantic’ sci-fi revolves around Zuhal, played by Beto Kusyairi, who appears to be experiencing some sort of a personal crisis. He winds up in hospital and from then on, the audience is taken on a series of flashbacks through which different characters are introduced. Among them, Nur played Diana Danielle.