Actress Sarimah wins 36-year fight for films

PETALING JAYA: Legendary actress Datuk Dr Sarimah Ahmad (pic) has regained the original tapes of four of her films, thanks to help from the Communica­tions Minis­try and the National Film Development Corpora­tion (Finas).

Deputy Minister Teo Nie Ching said the original tapes of the films – Dia Ibuku, Jejak Bertapak, Kabus Tengah Hari and Detik 12 Malam – were “taken” from her under a screening agreement with a certain party in 1989.

Teo said the company had also handed over copies of the films in hard disk drive (HDD) format to Finas for restoration purposes.

“This step also enables copies of the films to be given to Datuk Sarimah as part of efforts to restore the country’s artistic ­heritage,” she told reporters ­during the Finas Ziarah Seni Madani programme at the residence of Sarimah’s daughter here yesterday.

Under the programme, Teo also presented Sarimah, 83, with cash donations and basic necessities to ease the burden of the actress, who was diagnosed with colo­rectal cancer in 2022.

She said Sarimah was the first recipient of the donations this year in conjunction with Rama­dan as well as International Women’s Day.

“We also want to give our ­highest appreciation and recognition to local artistes and legends such as Sarimah,” Teo added.

Also present were Finas chief executive officer Datuk Azmir Saifuddin Mutalib and Finas Industry Affairs, Welfare and Industry Data Committee member Rozaidi Abdul Jamil, as well as Malaysian Artistes’ Association (Karyawan) president Datuk Freddie Fernandez.

Azmir Saifuddin explained that discussions to retrieve the original tapes of Sarimah’s films lasted for almost a year before the party involved finally agreed to return them to the actress, Bernama reported.

“The original tapes of the films were taken from her through an agreement with one party, which then sold it to another party, but we managed to trace them and held discussions to retrieve them.

“The other party also agreed to hand over the copies of the films and allow them to be broadcast on RTM with a fee for a year, for example, to be given to Sarimah,” he said.

Prior to this, Sarimah had called on a famous film producer to return the original tapes of the “stolen” films.