PETALING JAYA (July 26, 2009): Close to 200 people turned up to pay their respects at the funeral of talented filmmaker Yasmin Ahmad, who passed away at 11.25pm on Saturday (25/07/2009).
The multi-racial crowd, many of them in tears, at the funeral this morning was testament to Yasmin's ability to reach across ethnic and cultural boundaries in both her films and the television commercials she created for Petronas.
The prayers took place at about 10am at Masjid Abu Bakar As Siddiq at Section 19/7A, Subang Jaya before her body was taken to the Muslim burial ground at USJ22.
Dotted among the crowd of family and friends were celebrities and politicians, including Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, Air Asia CEO Datuk Tony Fernandez, 8TV CEO Ahmad Idzam Omar, singer Jaclyn Victor, film director Suhaimi Baba and actor Rosyam Nor.
Yasmin, who collapsed after suffering a stroke and undergoing surgery for cerebral hemorrhage on Thursday, had been creative force in the advertising and film industry, having won awards and accolades both locally and internationally.
Her interracial love story Sepet (2004) was accorded the Best Film Award and the Best Original Screenplay Award at the Malaysian Film Festival 2005. It also bagged the Asian Film Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival 2005, and the Grand Prix Award at the Creteil International Women's Film Festival in the same year.
Her other films included Gubra (2006), Mukhsin (2006), Muallaf (2008) and Talentime (2009).
The 51-year-old Muar-born Yasmin, who was married to Abdullah Tan Yew Leong, began her career as a copywriter with Ogilvy & Mather before joining Leo Burnnett, where she rose to become its creative executive director.
Yasmin's sudden death leaves a void in the local filmmaking industry, and her legacy will be long remembered.
Al-Fatihah..
ps: perginya seorang pengarah yg berkaliber dan disegani...karyanya byk membantu study ku...kejadian yg menimpanya mengingatkan aku pada seseorang yg aku kenali dulu...semoga rohnya dicucuri rahmat..amiin.
