Intiqam (2021)

Jamaluddin Abu (Co-Producer)

Hafiq Fakhry (Co-Producer)

Intiqam is a 2021 Bruneian action thriller vigilante film produced by Marhain Entertainment. It is the first installment in the IntiqamVerse. The film was released on August 8, 2021 in theaters and on April 29, 2022 on Progresif Media.

The film is directed and starred by Akmal Marhain as Azlan Amirul along with Jamaluddin Abu as Zidan, Haziq Hamizan as Hadi Razak, Natasyah Rahim as Sofea Daniel, Hanis Hafiizatul as Thiya Zakaria, Siti Norhaleeza as Naila Razak, Hafy Faaiz as Fendi Dato' Mustaqim and Muhammad Arif as Rizal Amirul.

The film was followed by spin off title Zidan and Thiya's Case 1 in 2022 and an upcoming direct sequel Intiqam 2 Wira Budiman released on June 21, 2023.

## Synopsis

Intiqam (2021) tells the story of Azlan Amirul, an ex convict who was just released from prison to find out that his brother Rizal was found dead. Azlan who is now a reformed man faced an internal conflict when he found out his brother's death was part of a bigger conspiracy which led him to fight the injustice as a masked vigilante.

## Plot

The film opens with the revelation of Rizal Amirul's death with his body found decomposing on a river bank.

A day after, Azlan Amirul was released from his five years prison sentence. He was greeted by his cousin Hadi Razak who immediately tried to console Azlan who was upset by the news and even told him that Rizal's death gained widespread media coverage to the point that Thiya Zakaria, a private journalist was also there to report on Azlan's prison release.

The next day, Azlan started a new job at Hadi's cafe along with his younger sister Naila Razak. While working there, Sofea Daniel, his brother's ex fiancee visited Azlan. She handed Azlan a bag which was passed on to her from Rizal himself.

Meanwhile, Zidan a gangster was enraged at his thugs Fizo and Khai for their carelessness in dumping Rizal's body. Thus, he sent them to finish the job by cutting down all loose ends including Sofea.

Soon after Azlan found a secret card with Blackjack Casino logo engraved on it and immediately thought Sofea was in danger. Worried of Sofea's safety, Azlan headed out to check on Sofea which led to his first encounter with Zidan's thug Khai. He tried to chase Khai but ended up getting hit by a car and fell unconscious.

Waking up the next day although prevented by Hadi, Naila and even his uncle Razak, Azlan continued his personal crusade to find his brother's killer. He went to Mustaqim Enterprise's charity event to ask Fendi Dato' Mustaqim regarding the Blackjack Casino card he acquired the day before. Fendi, who was Rizal's ex employer denied any knowledge on the card and he only proceeded to compliment Rizal as a very trustworthy employee of him.

Meanwhile, Zidan was furious at his thug's continous failure to tie all loose ends. He ordered Fizo to continue the mission and find Sofea who was at the hospital.

After receiving info from her interview with Fendi, Thiya immediately went to the hospital to meet Sofea where Inspector Sam was questioning Sofea for informations regarding the mystery person who saved her the day before. Fizo ambushed Sofea and Thiya who was then saved again by Azlan, now wearing his Black Mask suit.

After a chase and bloody fight between them, Azlan kidnapped Fizo and questioned him about his knowledge regarding the Blackjack Casino card. Soon after, Azlan answered a call from Fizo's phone who was revealed to be Zidan who then passed the phone to his partner, Fendi. Azlan was distrought finding out Fendi's involvement in the whole conspiracy. Azlan had to run away as Fendi has sent Tio to kill them. Thiya found out Fendi's involvement through a microphone she sticked under Fendi's table from their interview earlier and proceeded to report it to Inspector Sam.

Under order from Fendi, Zidan kidnapped Razak which caused Hadi to be furious at Azlan for causing harm on their family. Receiving information from a now dead Fizo, Azlan found out that the Blackjack Casino card was actually a USB drive which he then decrypted by help from Naila. Azlan finds evidence provided by Rizal regarding Fendi and Zidan's underground bussiness through Blackjack Casino.

Azlan ordered Hadi to passed the USB drive to Thiya and he launched an attack on Blackjack Casino. After fighting through a bunch of gangsters including Tio, Azlan confronted Fendi and Zidan. Finding out Fendi was giving up on Blackjack Casino Zidan shot him point blank, killing him. Zidan almost overpowered Azlan as he shot him in the abdominal area but upon hearing Zidan's humiliation on Rizal's death, Azlan was furious. Azlan almost killed Zidan but he was stopped upon listening to Razak's plea for him to be the better man.

Few days later, Azlan and his family visited Rizal's grave with Sofea. Azlan is now happy as he succeeded in exacting revenge at his brother's killer by putting Zidan behind bar without killing him. Thiya reported on the whole incident via her social media news program Thiya's Daily and dubbing Azlan for all his action in the whole ordeal as "Wira Budiman".

## Casts

* Akmal Marhain as Azlan Amirul / Black Mask / Wira Budiman
* Jamaluddin Abu as Zidan
* Hanis Hafiizatul as Thiya Zakaria
* Natasyah Rahim as Sofea Daniel
* Haziq Hamizan as Hadi Razak
* Hafy Faaiz as Fendi Dato' Mustaqim
* Siti Norhaleeza as Naila Razak
* Muhammad Arif as Rizal Amirul
* Hj Yunuz as Hj Razak
* Hamdillah HA as Dato' Mustaqim
* Saiful Azman as Inspector Sam
* Shah Hamzy as Fizo
* Nizam Abdul Azim as Tio
* Adawiyah Rahim as Yana Daniel
* Anwari Jamil as Khai

## Production

### Development

Prior to Intiqam (2021), Marhain Entertainment's director and producer Akmal Marhain has only directed short films and web series. Back in 2014 he has planned to make his first feature film debut with a movie titled "Budiman" telling story about a vigilante / superhero working to fight injustice in Brunei. But due to lack of budget and film crews he decided to shelve the project and proceeded to direct more short films.

### Writing

During the 2020 Covid-19 outbreak in Brunei, Akmal decided to write a script of five episodes web series which he initially planned to be a sequel to a short film he directed earlier that year, Khatima. After going through several rewrites he decided to cancel making it a sequel to Khatima and finally making it into a full fledged movie screenplay titled "Intiqam" which means "Vengeance". Akmal has always been a big fan of superhero / vigilante medias as he grew up watching them with Spider-man as his favourite superhero. But due to Brunei's audience's opinion on how less serious superhero genre movies are, he decided to write Intiqam as grounded in reality as he can while also maintaining some elements of superhero vigilantism in the film's whole theme. While writing, he took Marvel's Daredevil, Polis Evo, Munafik, No Tears for the Dead and I Saw the Devil as his main source of inspiration.

### Casting

Akmal Marhain decided to cast himself as the main character Azlan Amirul due to his love for the character and how much he aspires to be as heroic as Azlan. While writing the screenplay he has always had Jamaluddin Abu in mind to play as the film's main antagonist Zidan due to their prior experience working together in several short films. Jamaluddin did an in depth research on gangster's lifestyle and watched a lot of gangster films in preparation for his role as Zidan.

In order to cast some of the main characters, the production team made a mini casting call with some names chosen to do a screentest to check on their acting capabilities.

Thiya Zakaria was Akmal's personal favourite character in the whole IntiqamVerse. He originally contacted Saila HT to play as Thiya Zakaria as he has always had her in mind to play the character but she had to turn down the role due to scheduling conflict. Hanis Hafiizatul was finally casted as Thiya after undergoing screentest. The role was soon reverted back to Saila HT after Hanis had to withdrew from the production of Thiya's Case 1 and Intiqam 2 Wira Budiman.

For the character of Hadi Razak, Haziq Hamizan was chosen winning against Waiz Ubaidullah who was then casted as Hamzah in Zidan (2022). Siti Norhaleeza was casted as Naila Razak after Akmal saw a short clip of her on Instagram which made him think she was suitable for the role due to her stature and cheekiness in the clip. She was casted as Naila without undergoing screentest.

For Sofea Daniel, Akmal contacted Effy Shafryna a social media influencer with some acting background and Natasyah Rahim who was a friend of Akmal with prior acting experience as a background actor in his previous short film. Natasyah Rahim was casted in the role after going through screentest.

Ridhauddin Amin, who had previous stage play experience and has worked with Akmal in two of his short films was originally casted as Fendi Dato' Mustaqim. He had already underwent a script reading with the casts and about to start production when he had back down from the role due to health issues. Hafy Faaiz was finally casted as Fendi without any screentest.

Nizam Abdul Azim who was also the fight choreographer for the film was casted as Tio although he originally screentested to play Fizo.

### Production

Before going into production, Akmal along with his co producers Adi Amni, Jamaluddin Abu, Hafiq Fakhry and the whole team went through several meeting and discussions in preparation of making their first feature film. The crews admitted due to no prior experiences in making feature films almost all of them except Jamaluddin just followed Akmal's direction without even reading and understanding the whole script.

Adi Amni was chosen as the lead in make up and set design for the whole production. Adi Amni was inspired by Ridhauddin Amin in his make up works after watching him worked on several of short films produced by Marhain Entertainment.

The film was shot on two Canon 60D with several aerial views shot using DJI Mavic Mini. Akmal Marhain oversaw the whole photography process with Hafiq Fakhry, Yasrin Yahya and Zaim Kamthani as his camera operator.

At the time, Marhain Entertainment was still a growing name in Brunei's film industry so the production was funded by Akmal Marhain's personal budget and the production's fund due to no financial incentive from any government agencies or private companies.

The production took 9 months to conclude which began in September 2020 and ended in June 2021 just 3 months before the film's release. Shooting took place in several locations around Brunei. Akmal Marhain edited the film himself while the film was still in production.

## Marketing

Marhain Entertainment released the first official teaser of Intiqam on January 1, 2021 on their official Youtube channel which gained attention from Bruneians due to mixture of action and Islamic element in the trailer which intrigued some of the audiences.

Marhain Entertainment then collaborated with Qudoz Event Management for their first public event held at The Mall, Gadong where they released their first official trailer and official poster. This event gained them even more interested audiences who are so excited to watch Bruneian made action film which was still rare at that time in Brunei's film industry.

Marhain Entertainment was then invited on a radio interview by DJ Alif on Pelangi FM. Akmal Marhain, Adi Amni, Siti Norhaleeza and Hafy Faaiz appeared on the interview where they disclosed a lot of informations regarding the film.

## Release

Intiqam (2021) had it's premiere at The Grandstand Cinema, Seria on August 8, 2021. The film was initially set to had it's wide release the next coming weeks but Marhain Entertainment had to pull off the film's showing due to the second outbreak of Covid-19 in Brunei.

The film finally had it's limited release with only The Grandstand Cinema as the cineplex in Brunei to be showing the movie on January 21, 2022.

Audience's review on the film was mixed to positive with some of the audiences praising the storyline and acting while some of the criticisim were mainly focused on the film's sound design, some acting and action scenes. Overall, the review was very encouraging which warranted Akmal to be confident in making a sequel to the film.

### Home Media Release

Intiqam (2021) was released on Progresif Media a local Bruneian streaming platform on April 29, 2022.

## Expansion, sequel and spin-offs

Intiqam (2021) is the first installment in the IntiqamVerse which was then followed by a spin-off short films Zidan and Thiya's Case 1, both released for streaming on Progresif Media. Zidan followed the story of Zidan before and after Intiqam (2021) while Thiya's Case 1 tells story about the origin of how Thiya Zakaria first started her journalism endeavour befor Intiqam (2021).

Intiqam 2 Wira Budiman a direct sequel to Intiqam (2021) is set to be released on June 21, 2023.