Hishamuddin Rais claimed to be the founder and only member of NGI, which he defined as "Non-Governmental Individual". Among the most recent crop of ISA detainees he is the only one not associated with a political party or organization. He was not the secretary-general or information bureau chief of anything. This is because he had many times claimed dread at the very idea of attending a meeting that would begin by reading the minutes of the previous meeting.

He is still best-known for his stewardship of the student movement in the tumultuous 1973-4 demonstrations on subjects like American imperialism and Israeli expansionism, plus the more local concerns of Kedah peasants and Johore squatters. It seems like a different age: The students back then were even powerful enough to temporarily take over the campus of Universiti Malaya. His name and that of fellow student Anwar Ibrahim remained potent for decades later although their ideologies were different (Hishamuddin socialist, Anwar Islamic). A crucial difference is the fact that Hishamuddin chose to escape the country to resist arrest (and also indirectly resist being absorbed into the establishment the way Anwar was), which meant that his credentials as a non-conformist would not be as tainted by careerist ambitions and expediency.

Throughout his 20 years in self-imposed exile, he remained the Malaysian rebel with a series of adventures in Iraq, Palestine, India, Australia, Moscow, Belgium and finally England. News and speculation of him would filter back to the local media. For an account of these amazing years, I refer you to Sheryll Stothard's five-part article in Malaysiakini.com.

Stothard writes: "Rebels do not thrive in Malaysia. Well, not before Mahathir and Anwar, anyway. Traditionally, the entrenched 'values' of piety, honour, respect and budi bahasa that mixes with our inherited feudalism within a more insidious patriarchal order make it difficult soil for rebel seedlings to take root."

So Hishamuddin was an anomaly, and remained so even after he was allowed to return in 1994. With the cachet associated with his name, he could have become a politician or corporate crony (stranger things have happened!), but he chose filmmaking and freelance writing as his hardly lucrative twin vocations. Before the political landscape changed so drastically in September 1998, he could pass of as an eccentric, excitable, artistic sort who nonetheless would be living mainly off the intrigue associated with his past.

His frisky debut film, "Dari Jemapoh ke Manchestee" was shot on a low budget and is only now being screened to the public. It is a youthful story about four kids trying to escape from their humdrum lives in a stolen red Volvo. The sympathy of the film is entirely with the young ones as opposed to the stifling adults. This is remarkable as Hisham was not only pushing middle-age but pushing it from the wrong side of the door. The film screened in many international festivals - including Rotterdam, Stockholm and Singapore - but he didn't get a chance to attend any because a condition of his return was that he could no longer have a passport.

The film was made in a different genre and style than other Malay movies, which is why I wrote that it's actually about the possibilities of freedom. There are no cookie-cutter stars. Even here, his refusal to conform to established pieties or to respect some of the sacred cows of contemporary Malaysian society continued to set him apart. Plus, he has a sense of humour.

Holing up in his filthy office in Bangsar Utama and fuelled by unfiltered kretek and teh tarik, he would pound away at his keyboard to meet various deadlines. His Analog column in Berita Minggu and DotMai column in Malaysiakini - plus a short lived-column called R & R (which he said stood for Rock & Reformasi) in the short-lived magazine Detik were remarkable because he was lucky enough to escape the pollution that the Malay language underwent from the late 70s to the early 90s. His language was earthy and pithy. When it became pretentious, it was only for effect. He also popularized many Malay-language terms, such as daulah for nation-state, which are now common currency.

His use of words could be shocking. During his term in Berita Minggu he would take religious terms like "wajib" and use them in determinedly secular contexts. He would defend the use of tahyul (supernatural) in films as well as pre-Islamic customs such as 'mandi safar' as manifestations of how "manusia merayakan hidup mereka" (people celebrate their lives). He was literally the only Malay columnist who did that.

The events of September 1998 would turn him once again into a more overtly political animal. Aside from demonstrations, he also set up an informal group Teater Bukan Teater to stage the play "Tok Ampoo", which he proudly claimed would have no artistic merit whatsoever. ONE HOUR OF PURE PROPAGANDA was how he advertised the show on the Net. Despite or because of this artistic lack, "Tok Ampoo" has the distinction of being the only play available on pirated VCD format. But being an NGI had its ironies. The anti-Mahathir play could never get a permit to stage legitimately, but even Pas refused to back it because the play contained, of all things, women. So "Tok Ampoo" became this peripatetic carnival that was put up wherever someone could give it a temporary home.

Two years ago I chaired a discussion in Finas on the latest batch of student films from Akademi Filem Malaysia. Hishamuddin was on the panel. There was one student film in particular that excited him. It was about evil drug addicts. Hisham tried to make the audience see that drug addicts were not evil; they were evil only because drugs were expensive and crimes were committed to get them. He said, "The really evil people aren't addicts but some of the men in suits and ties who work in offices". At this point he pointed, for illustrative purposes, to a gentleman in the audience who happened to be the only one in a suit. That gentleman turned out to be a Finas official and was not amused. A few days later I received a letter saying that Hishamuddin was not to be invited to any further functions. It was the victory of the suits over a version of the truth that we had a right to hear.

I hope you enjoy his film and also, during the supper-time discussion with your friends afterwards, find time to reflect on what a person like Hishamuddin could mean in a society like ours, and what danger he could possibly pose that required him to be locked away for two years. And when you are done, have a good laugh in his honour.

*** "Dari Jemapoh ke Manchestee" opens on Thursday, August 2, exclusively at TGV Suria KLCC and GSC Mid-Valley Megamall. Both prints have English subtitles.