walid

Martial Arts-Fueled Action Drama WALID Lands An Official Trailer For Its Malaysian Release

Silat Warriors helmer Areel Abu Bakar’s newest action drama, Walid, is finally setting the stage with an official trailer to mark its Indonesian release in cinemas. The film features Megat Sharizal in the title role for the pic heralded for its nationalistic messaging as much as its lean against the very real and rampant issues pertinent to child trafficking. Bakar directs Walid from a script he wrote with co-writer Hafiz Derani, which sees Sharizal in the role of a teacher whose tenure volunteering in a rural village finds him mentoring a young immigrant girl eager to satiate her need for learning. Her brazen kidnapping by members of a local underground child trafficking ring, Walid partakes in a sprawling act of courage that offsets an explosive final showdown in the enemy stronghold to save the girl’s life and those of her fellow captives. Sharizal leads a cast that includes Feiyna Tajuddin, […]

WALID Review: Silat Action Is The Weapon Of Choice To Protect Children In Areel Abu Bakar’s Latest

Lee B. Golden III

Malaysian cinema has been around for close to a century. Its industry has certainly evolved through the times, and with that growth came the last fifteen years in which martial arts films in the region have become just a little more prolific. Director Areel Abu Bakar has since begun staking his claim as of several years ago, scoring a major win at the New York Asian Film Festival with Geran – a.k.a. Silat Warriors: Deed Of Death – and now returns a few films later with another offering in the form of Walid, starring Megat Sharizal. At its forefront, Walid, as a conceptual play on the definition of the word itself, hams it up as a nationalistic call to arms, using child trafficking and endangerment as part of its subject matter. Par for the course is the inclusion of migrants from other countries and families whose children don’t have the […]

WALID: Megat Sharizal Leads Malaysia’s War On Child Trafficking In The Official U.S. Trailer For Areel Abu Bakar’s New Martial Arts Thriller

Lee B. Golden III

The official trailer is live for Walid, the new Malaysian action thriller from award-winning director Areel Abu Bakar. Outsider Pictures is running weeklong screenings in New York at Cinema Village from July 28, and in Los Angeles at Laemmle Glendale from August 11 with Bakar in attendance with lead actor Megat Sharizal. Bakar directs from a script he wrote with Hafiz Derani, which stars Sharizal in a story that draws into the plight of child trafficking and xenophobia against other migrants living in Southeast Asia. Walid (Sharizal) lives a simple small town life, donating his time to teaching under-privileged children, as well as repairing electrical items for the villagers. One day he notices a young girl, Aisha, hanging around his class and invites her to join. A bond builds between teacher and student until it is shattered by a local crime syndicate that snatches Aisha and the other children. When […]

WALID: ‘Silat Warriors’ Director’s Latest Gets NY & LA Screening Dates Ahead Of Fall Malay Release

Lee B. Golden III

If you’re at all keen on the festival scene in the last several years, then you may have gotten wind of Malaysian action thriller Geran (a.k.a. Silat Warriors: Deed Of Death). The movie premiered at the 19th New York Asian Film Festival where it earned its debutant director Areel Abu Bakar the Daniel A. Craft Award For Excellence In Action Cinema, before Well Go USA swooped in for its commercial release of the pic, and Bakar himself has gone on to direct a few more titles since then. For this, we turn to Walid (meaning “father” in Arabic), a new action adventure with Bakar back in full bloom with his Silat action team for a story that permeates the harrowing subject of child trafficking. Actor Megat Sharizal, billed as Malaysia’s own Sammo Hung, leads the cast for the story of a kind and dedicated teacher who takes matters into his […]