ANN/THE STAR – When Datuk Yusof Haslam was directing the Gerak Khas dramas in the late 1990s, depicting the crime-fighting efforts of the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM), he faced restrictions from the police headquarters in Bukit Aman.
They advised against highlighting the darker aspects of policing, such as corruption, bribery, and violence. These issues were strictly prohibited from being portrayed in the series, which ran for 20 seasons and concluded in 2021.
Despite Yusof’s desire to address these elements within the police department for his 2002 film Gerak Khas The Movie II, his request was once again denied.
“As a filmmaker, we can only do as much as we are allowed to,” he said at a recent press event to launch his production company’s latest film.
Despite accepting his limitations, it didn’t sit well with Yusof.
“Every time I went to give talks at universities, students would always question me why I only showcased good things about police in my Gerak Khas shows.
“Thankfully, times have changed and we are now more open-minded. PDRM has given us the green light to show the dark side (of the police force) because it is illogical to hide it anymore in this day and age of social media,” added Yusof, who turned 70 yesterday.
That idea of his has finally been turned into the hit film Sheriff by his son, Syafiq Yusof, who developed the script (with Nazifdin Nasrudin) and directed it.
Headlined by Zul Ariffin, Syafiq Kyle and Datuk Aaron Aziz, Sheriff is currently showing in cinemas nationwide. The film has earned a total of MYR22.1 million within seven days of its release.
According to Yusof, the script for Sheriff was approved by PDRM as it does not damage the reputation of the force, has an important message to impart, as well as there being rhyme and reason behind the actions of the good cop and those of the bad cop featured in the film.
“Audiences are smart enough to know that there are many good officers out there, and not to judge the whole force based on just a few bad ones,” explained Yusof.
The film centres around Zul’s character Sheriffudin Hussein, better known as Sheriff. He works in the police’s Integrity Department and “cleans up” the force by arresting corrupt cops in other departments. His latest case brings him to the Narcotics unit and face-to-face with Nazri (Syafiq Kyle) whom he suspects to be the vigilante cop who is killing off corrupt policemen as well as bad guys who escape punishment.
Many audiences have applauded Syafiq Yusoff for tackling a topic that often lands on the front page of newspapers and social media, but never in local films.
“My father has been doing police shows for four decades now, and I feel I should continue his work,” said Syafiq, who directed Polis Evo 3, the No 1 film of 2023, and the KL Special Force (2018).
“But after Polis Evo 3, I didn’t really know what story to explore in this genre. So I asked him what other police story he wants to do. He suggested the theme of integrity within the force, an idea he has been ruminating for some time. “To be honest, I didn’t expect such an open attitude from PDRM,” said Syafiq, adding that Bukit Aman only requested for a few changes to the script. And the Film Censorship Board of Malaysia (LPF) only asked for a cut of a scene involving bad language, which I was fine with omitting. I was more afraid LPF would ban the film and it would not be shown in cinemas.”
Syafiq explained his main aim with Sheriff is not to tell who are the bad cops doing the bad things they do, but to show why they happen.
“I want to present a story from different points of view, and not paint the characters in just black and white. I am not attacking anyone. To me, the film is honest and fair.” Yusof also described Sheriff as the most honest work he has ever produced.
At the same time, Syafiq admitted that with the approval and due to the sensitivity of the subject, he had to be careful at every turn about the portrayals of police officers in Sheriff.
Hence, the filmmaking process took longer than usual and cost MYR6 million to make.
Yusof shared, “The film went over the budget and the shoot went on for 81 days. Normally we shoot for about 60 days only. My son and I often quarrelled over the production cost. I trust my son to do the best and he is very detailed. But some things that can be done in a day, he takes two or three days. The scene where we had to close the roads for the chase scene took three days to shoot. It looks simple and fast in the film but it took a long time and much effort to shoot.”
Sheriff, which received a 16 rating (for viewers aged 16 and above), runs close to two hours, and features not only car chases but also extensive shootout scenes and physical fights.
An outstanding physical fight in the film is between the titular character and the ultimate baddie, a drug lord, played by Datuk Aaron Aziz.
As it happens, this particular sequence almost didn’t make it into the film as director Syafiq wanted to tighten the script and thought there were already too many action sequences.
But lead star Zul disagreed, “I thought it would be a real pity to let go of this opportunity of a fight sequence between Aaron and myself in this movie.
“This is our first film together and of course the audiences want to see the two of us fight.
So, I was happy when it was back in.” Zul added that the fight sequence – which took four days to shoot – took a toll on him and Aaron as they went all out each time the camera rolled, sometimes even breaking props that were not meant to be broken.
“It’s true that we were both tired when shooting this scene. But we encouraged each other because we want to showcase the best for the film. Collaboration is crucial on any film set, and actors cannot be selfish because ultimately we want to entertain the audience,” said Zul.
“Thankfully, when we watched the playback, we could see it looked good and we were satisfied with the result. Sometimes we did go overboard in the scene,” added the 37-year-old action star with a laugh.
One of the things that come across clearly in Sheriff too is just how charismatic Zul’s character is. Syafiq, who had directed Zul in Penunggang Agama and Misteri Dilaila, said it was the actor who injected so much personality into his character.
The director said, “I love working with Zul Ariffin because he always knows how to enhance a character. There are a lot of scenes in this movie where the personality trait is actually something that he came up with. It wasn’t in the script originally. For example, when he’s making fun of other cops and he’s laughing. In the script, there’s no laughing. But somehow when he includes the laughter, the scene just becomes so much better.” – Mumtaj Begum