MH370 'movie' draws condemnation

MH370 'movie' draws condemnation

KUALA LUMPUR - Several netizens vented their anger on social media when the movie trailer for The Vanishing Act went viral on the Internet after it was presented to potential film buyers and investors at the Cannes Film Festival in France on Saturday.

Among the unhappy lot was the daughter of the flight's chief steward Andrew Nari, Maira Elizabeth Nari, who took to her social media accounts.

Maira posted on her Instagram account that she was disgusted with the movie, directed by Rupesh Paul. He had previously directed an erotic film titled Kamasutra 3D.

"What are you trying to prove here? I am so disgusted by the movie, Rupesh Paul. Very insensitive. Can you please respect the family members of MH370? And that is not how the cabin crew works in an aircraft," she said, referring to a scene in the trailer featuring two cabin crew sharing a passionate moment.

Maira appealed to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein for the government to act over the film.

Several Twitter users also joined Maria to offer their support and voiced their outrage over the movie trailer.

A user by the name of Az from Selangor, through his Twitter handle "azizulg", described the trailer as outrageous and preposterous.

[[nid:93650]]

Another user by the name of Ian Hall from Scarborough in United Kingdom, through his Twitter handle "rubicon23", said the movie was "callous and insensitive".

"The perpetrators should be ashamed," he said.

The same sentiment was also shared by YouTube users. Youtbe user Rizki Maulana said the movie, which featured female cabin crew in short skirts instead of MAS' trademark batik kebaya, could not even get the uniform of the flight crew correct.

Another YouTube user, Alana Walsh, said the movie was morally wrong at all levels.

"This is awful. They haven't found the plane. Relatives and friends don't know what had happened to their loved ones and they decided to make a film."

The 90-second trailer portrayed a scene where an individual was holding a gun in the jetliner.

A Boeing 747 was used in the trailer instead of a Boeing 777, which is the actual make of the missing Beijing-bound flight.

There was also a scene in the trailer claiming that the movie will "decode the MH370 mystery", although the film's associate director, Sritama Dutta, had said the only similarity between the movie and the incident was a missing plane.

It was learnt that the film director wrote the screenplay for the movie within 20 days based on a theory by an unidentified Malaysian journalist, who is also one of the film's investors.

Another movie based on the missing flight, which was screened at the film festival yesterday was A Dark Reflection by production team Fact Not Fiction Films.

This website is best viewed using the latest versions of web browsers.