Malaysia is a multi-racial nation where LGBT people are criminalized, all ethnic Malay persons are born Muslims from birth and for life, and Muslims can’t renounce Islam. Queer Muslims can face additional charges under the Islamic Sharia laws. 

Kuala Lumpur is the city where “Shh…Diam!”, a three-member punk band is based and performs. Faris Saad is his lead singer and music composer; there two women of the community with electronic guitars; through their music, they resist sharing their own experiences, as shown in this documentary produced, directed, and filmed by Yihwen Chen.

Faris also shares his story, what it is like for a trans guy to be trapped in a body and being assigned in a gender that doesn´t belong to. Born and raised as a woman in a super conservative Islamic state, Faris has many things to do to be true to himself, shots of testosterone every three weeks and chest surgery included.  Faris also shares the difficulty of talking about these themes in the family circuit, although coming out to parents, there is a pretension it never happened, denial.

It is stated that Faris and the band at the beginning had no intention to become a sort of an activist kind of band, which they are, even participating in protests. An openly gay band writing gay songs on Lonely Lesbian with great success,  and also referring to a country, horny and broke during the days of 2020 after the pandemic.

In a cinema verité style and a witty way, film and songs refer to the difficulties to live in Malaysia, where religious and criminal laws are against the LGBT community to the extreme to seek asylum for transgender Faris and the band bring a message to an interview at a University radio:  ]hate comes from a place of hurt and misunderstanding, they look forward to  \help to clear up and open a dialogue, as director does in a dangerous country where diversity is not allowed.  7/10