ONCE again, the nation is marking its most important festival, National Day on Aug 31 followed by Malaysia Day on Sept 16.
On most years over the decades, our filmmakers have come up with big screen gems to instil a sense of pride and patriotism amongst Malaysians regardless of race, religion and region.
As early as the 1960s, Tan Sri P. Ramlee came up with the nationalistic film Sarjan Hassan which saw him play a soldier who resisted the Japanese colonialists and rooted out dreaded collaborators.
But military-themed films need not be the yardstick for good patriotic movies, those centred on the independence struggle as well as great sportsmen have been a hit with moviegoers too.
Below are five of the most popular patriotic movies of the country, over the last 67 years.
BUKIT KEPONG (1981)
One of the best known movies made by the late Tan Sri Jins Shamsuddin, it boasted a star-studded cast which also included A. Rahim, Hussein Abu Hassan and Datuk Yusof Haslam.
A docudrama on the 1950 Bukit Kepong incident in Muar, Johor where police and village volunteers bravely battled guerillas from the Communist Party of Malaya at the Bukit Kepong police station 59 kilometres away from Muar town centre.
A total of 180 communists attacked the police station and after a day-long shoot-out, killed 19 policemen as well as four civilians, razing the station to the ground.
Jins played the station's police chief Sarjan Jamil Mohamad Shah and deservingly won Best Film and Best Director in the Third Malaysian Film Festival the following year.
KRU Studios re-edited the film in 2014.
1957: HATI MALAYA (2007)
The first ever film made about the country's two foremost independence leaders Datuk Onn Jaafar and Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra was produced by Pesona Pictures and directed by Datin Paduka Shuhaimi Baba.
Marking 50 years of Merdeka, it had a star-studded cast comprising Rusdi Ramli, Maya Karin, Adlin Aman Ramlie, Sharifah Amani, Kamarulzaman Taib, Bront Palarae, Tan Sri Jins Shamsuddin and Datuk Mustapha Maarof.
Featuring two parallel stories of modern-day history buffs coming up with a book on the struggle for independence, and the actual struggle itself spearheaded by statesmen Onn, Tunku, Tun Tan Cheng Lock and Tun V. T. Sambanthan, it made theatre actor Kamarulzaman a household name because of his stellar portrayal of Tunku.
It was also one of Mustapha's last movies and saw him portray the country's first King Tuanku Abdul Rahman, a first for any Malaysian actor.
OLA BOLA (2016)
Arguably the best Malaysian sports movie ever made, Ola Bola directed by Chiu Keng Guan was based on the national footballers' hard-fought journey to the 1980 Olympics which culminated in their monumental match against South Korea in Stadium Merdeka that year.
Starring JC Chee, Luqman Hafidz, Saran Kumar and Bront Palarae, it focuses on the struggles of the team's captain Chow Kok Keong or Towkay (Chee), its brilliant goalkeeper Spider-Man Muthu Kumar (Saran) and its super striker from Sabah, Ahmad Ali (Luqman).
Also featured prominently are the foreign coach Harry Mountain (Mark Williams) and a promising sports commentator Rahman (Bront).
The film won Best Original Theme Song for Arena Cahaya, composed by Rendra Zawawi and performed by Zee Avi, at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and the Special Jury Award - National Unity at the Malaysian Film Festival 2016.
MALBATT: MISI BAKARA (2023)
Malaysia's answer to Black Hawk Down was directed by Adrian Teh and starred Bront Palarae, Shaheizy Sam, Gaddafi Ismail Sabri, Tony Eusoff, Hairul Azreen, Zahiril Adzim and Iedil Dzuhrie Alaudin among others.
It is based on the true story of the 1993 Malaysian military operation to help rescue United States soldiers trapped in Bakara Market, Mogadishu, Somalia during the Somali Civil War that year.
It explored the bravery of the 19th Mechanised Royal Malay Regiment soldiers who were part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission in fighting vicious Somalian militias and risking their lives to save their American counterparts.
The film cost RM20 million making it one of the most expensive films in Malaysia.
The film was shot in Gaziantep, Turkey as well as Iskandar Puteri in Johor.
GOLD (2024)
Another Adrian Teh production, Gold is a biopic of the country's first Paralympic Games badminton gold medallist Cheah Liek Hou who won big in Tokyo 2020.
Starring Jack Tan as Cheah and Farid Kamil as his coach Datuk Rashid Sidek, it had its main scenes filmed in Stadium Malawati, Shah Alam and marked Farid's second non-fiction role after portraying Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in Anwar: The Untold Story early last year.
Popular actors and actresses such as Yasmin Hani, Wan Raja, Fabian Loo, Josiah Hogan and Tony Eusoff made up the supporting cast.
The real Cheah and Rashid gave the film their thumbs up and even made cameo appearances as themselves in one important scene.