Deputy minister Teo Nie Ching said the original tapes of the films – “Dia Ibuku”, “Jejak Bertapak”, “Kabus Tengah Hari” and “Detik 12 Malam” – were taken from the 83-year-old under a screening agreement with a certain party in 1989.

Teo said the company also handed over copies of the films in hard disk drive (HDD) format to Finas for restoration purposes.

“This enables copies of the films to be given to Sarimah as part of efforts to restore the country’s artistic heritage,” she told reporters at Sarimah’s daughter’s residence here today.

Teo was speaking at the Finas Ziarah Seni Madani programme, during which she also presented Sarimah, who was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2022, with cash donations and basic necessities.

She said Sarimah was the first recipient of the donations this year in conjunction with Ramadan and International Women’s Day.

“We also want to give our highest appreciation and recognition to local artistes and legends such as Sarimah,” Teo said, adding that the programme will help 100 recipients this year.

Sarimah had previously called on a well-known film producer to return the original tapes of four of her films that were “stolen” from her 37 years ago.

Finas CEO Azmir Saifuddin Mutalib explained that discussions to retrieve the original tapes of Sarimah’s films lasted for almost a year before the party involved finally agreed to return them to the actress.

“The original tapes were taken from her through an agreement with one party, which then sold it to another party, but we managed to trace them and held discussions to retrieve them.

“The other party also agreed to hand over the copies of the films and allow them to be broadcast on RTM, with a fee to be given to Sarimah,” he said.