“Anwar, The Untold Story” charts the period in Anwar’s life when he was appointed as finance minister in 1991 until the point when he was fired from the Cabinet in 1998.

“The story in this film is based on Anwar’s version, a version that is rarely heard by Malaysians, for example, the story of his complete investigation report when he was locked up,” the film’s executive producer Zukiflee Anwar Haque, or better known as Zunar, said.

The film is a result of interviews with those who were involved and publicly available documents, Zunar said.

The film is directed by Indonesia’s Viva Westi and stars local actors Farid Kamil Zahari in the lead role as Anwar and Hasnul Rahmat as former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Indonesian actor Acha Septriasa plays Anwar’s wife, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Zunar said he had the idea to make a movie about Anwar some 20 years ago when the “reformasi” movement first started.

“Actually, I have been recording Anwar’s struggles since the reformasi movement, and I did have the desire to turn it into a film, but it was only realised after I got in touch with Viva in August 2021.

“We seriously discussed the matter of making this into a movie and started on a script,” he said.

Zunar said the story highlighted Anwar’s fight against corruption and the repercussions he faced when he was jailed.

“Whether Anwar becomes Prime Minister or not was something that did not arise (when we were producing the movie). We believed that the message was good and should be conveyed to the public and used as historical documentation.

“However, you could say that we were lucky because as soon as the film was completed, the political scenario changed and it is a bonus for us that we can finally screen the movie in cinemas soon,” he said.