Malaysian film ‘Malbatt: Misi Bakara’ to “portray the real heroes” of ‘Black Hawk Down’ mission

Upcoming Malaysian film Malbatt: Misi Bakara is set to tell the “true Malaysian armed force story” behind the infamous Black Hawk Down mission in Somalia.

The film, which is being produced by Berjaya Pictures, Act 2 Pictures, Fast Bikes, Aurum Investments Limited, Golden Screen Cinemas and Astro Shaw in collaboration with the Malaysian Army, will tell the story of the 19th battalion of the Royal Malay Regiment, who were deployed as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force to rescue the American soldiers trapped behind enemy lines when their Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in 1993.

In a press conference, producer Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun told The Vibes that it was important to “correct the facts in this incident,” adding, “In Black Hawk Down, the American (US troops) were seen as the heroes… but we know for a fact that it was the Malaysian soldiers who were the real heroes.”

Director Vincent Teh also told the publication that the success of 2018 Malaysian war movie PASKAL: The Movie inspired him to tell the “true” story of Black Hawk Down. “Nothing is bigger than telling this well-known mission. I am glad that I am given this chance to tell our version of this story,” he said.

Malbatt: Misi Bakara will also be Malaysia’s most expensive film ever created with an MYR20 million budget. Teh shared that production, which took place over 100 days of filming in Turkey, and featured an armoured personnel carrier constructed on set due to the logistics involved in bringing one directly from Malaysia.

“Apart from that, the uniforms that were used during the mission are already obsolete, so consequently we were not able to rent them. Therefore the uniforms worn by the actors were all re-printed and all that cost a lot of money,” he said, noting that CGI was used to make the setting look closer to the time period of 1993.

The film is set to star Hairul Azreen, Zahiril Adzim, Bront Palarae, Shaheizy Sam, Nafiez Zaidi, but has not yet been given an official release date.

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