Faris is a transman and lead singer of ‘Shh..Diam!’, an openly queer punk band in Malaysia. Together with his bandmates Yon and Yoyo, they use their music to fight for LGBTQI+ rights in a country where human rights and freedom of expression is severely curtailed by a conservative Muslim society. Faced with increasing discrimination, Yoyo decides to leave Malaysia.
Despite the challenges, Faris chooses to stay, determined to continue using their music as a platform for advocating for freedom and equality, refusing to let the pressures of society silence their voice.
The Garden Cinema View:
Queer as Punk is true to its name: handheld, rough and unvarnished scenes from the lives of the band members through gigs, protests, and daily existence. Their name, 'Shh...Diam!', Malay for 'Shut up!', is perfect sarcasm for a band that’s anything but quiet: their irreverent, often clowning and self-aware song lyrics represent a genuinely brave form of protest in the context of Malaysia’s queer- and transphobic legislation. Frontman Faris steals the show with his abrupt candour, humour and charm; he also openly discusses his gender-affirming care, and the rights he foregoes simply by existing as trans, including the right to vote.
Through the band we glimpse the multifaceted, polyphonic queer scene of Kuala Lumpur, with people often forced into lives of activism. In a particularly moving scene, the band hosts a memorial protest concert for a lesbian couple who were subjected to lashings as punishment.
Sobering and angering, tender, bizarre, and hilarious, Queer as Punk reminds us not just of the individual lives at stake, but of the liberty, the weirdness, and wild creativity threatened by regressive policies and the rise of the far right, in Malaysia, the West, and everywhere else.
