“Dalam Botol” (“Inside a Bottle”) is the first gay-themed film to hit the big screen in the conservative and anti-LGBT country of Malaysia.
The film raked in one million ringgit ($330,000) in its opening week – and despite an anti-homosexual ending, producer Raja Azmi Raja Sulaiman has already experienced resistance from officials of the Islamic party, who want to see the film banned from theaters.
The movie tells the story of a gay male character who gets a sex-change in order to please his lover but eventually comes to regret the procedure and ends up falling in love with a woman. Raja Azmi explained that, “For me, this film is my soapbox to remind society not to be influenced by gay culture, which is considered taboo in this country.”
Sodomy is illegal in Malaysia, and depictions of homosexuality in the media and popular culture are punishable by fine.
“Dalam Botol” has incurred the resistance of those who find even negative or cautionary reflections of homosexuality offensive.
“I do not understand why we expose such movies to the people,” said conservative Pan-Malasia Islamic Party lawmaker Hatta Ramli. “We do not need such movies.”
