An endearing coming-of-age film - riding a bike, flying a kite, climbing trees, being raised by goofy yet loving parents and a friendship that lasts a lifetime. Written and directed by the late Yasmin Ahmad.
Another gem from Yasmin Ahmad ('Sepet'), 'Mukhsin' examines the most common and uncomfortable human experience. Orked is 10 and her best friend Mukhsin is 12. The movie explores what happens when your best friend--someone with whom you've been learning to do cool things like climbing trees, flying kites and riding bicycles--starts to develop romantic feelings for you.
The story takes place in Sekinchan, Sabak Bernam in 1993, revolving around the first love of a 10-year-old Orked when a 12-year-old boy, Mukhsin, comes with his elder brother and aunt to spend the school holidays in her village.Around this relatively simple plotline of a blossoming young romance between the film's two young protagonists, are interweaved scenes of Malaysian village life and the dynamics of different types of families. Most of the family scenes revolve around Orked and her mother (Mak Inom), father (Pak Atan), and the family's close maid who is almost like a family member (Kak Yam).The other families which are given attention in the movie are Mukhsin's family (with his elder brother who has lost his way in life and is trying desperately to find their mother who abandoned them at a young age, and their Aunty who is trying to take care of the two boys as though they were her own), and Orked's neighbours (with the young daughter and pregnant mother who are critical of the western ways of Orked's family, while they themselves are hurt by the father who wants to abandon them to take on a second wife).
