PETALING JAYA, May 16 — The trailer for Bront Palarae’s yet to be made film Dawn Raid: The Hands That Rattled The Queen was released last Friday.

Based on the shocking take-over of Guthrie Corporation Limited, the Malaysian-based British-owned rubber and oil palm conglomerate, at the London Stock Exchange in 1981… the trailer is an attempt by the film-makers to raise money for it.

The film, produced by Bront’s production company Pixel Play, will star Shaheizy Sam, Datin Sofia Jane and Iedil Putra while the script was written by Redza Minhat and Chew Kin Wah.

Malaysians born after 1980 may not be familiar with the Guthrie Dawn Raid but in light of recent events, things may have very well come full circle for Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, where returning rightful belongings to the country is concerned.

When the raid took place back in 1981, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had only just assumed the position of prime minister for two months.

The raid handed approximately 200,000 acres of agricultural land back to Malaysians.

For the young, post-colonial nation, it was an unabashed denouncement of colonial economic exploitation.

And following last week’s surprise defeat of Barisan Nasional, the ruling coalition that governed Malaysia for 61 years, which saw by the swearing-in of Dr Mahathir as the country’s seventh prime minister, introducing the film’s trailer at this juncture of Malaysian politics was a clever move.

"Our aim was to bring back the mojo to serve the country again. Sad that our efforts were halted but with the support we received from the public, I believe it just gave new hope to everyone involved in the project,” said Bront on the buzz surrounding the trailer.

Plans to make the historical film began as far back as 2013 and although it is slated for a 2019 release — on Merdeka Day — filming has yet to start due to funding.

Bront detailed the yet-to-be-made film’s journey through several tweets yesterday.

The director revealed that National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) did not even consider funding the project while others they pitched the film to said it was not commercial enough.

"We received no support, maybe it was case of wrong timing,” Bront told Malay Mail.

Bront, who is also an actor, is known for his roles in Ola Bola, Bunohan and HBO’s Halfworlds.

The 39-year-old, whose real name is Nasrul Suhaimin Saifuddin, had previously told Astro Awani the production team made the trailer to raise funds.

"Using funds from MDEC (Multimedia Development Corporation), we are able to share the vision of this movie through a newly-released trailer aimed at fund-raising to start filming.

"Once we secure funding, we can begin filming,” he told Astro Awani.

The Guthrie Dawn Raid is said to be the most dramatic Malaysian acquisition of a foreign firm, all done and dusted in less than four hours, as explained in academic paper The ‘Unfinished Business’ of Malaysia’s Decolonisation: The Origins of the Guthrie ‘Dawn Raid’ by Shakila Yacob and Nicholas J. White.

In the trailer, Shaheizy plays young banker and analyst Khalid, one of the key figures who led the covert, high-profile operation.

The "Khalid” in question is none other than Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, Selangor Menteri Besar from 2008 to 2014, who was chief executive of Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB).

PNB is the government-linked investment house that was set up in 1978 as a tool of the New Economic Policy (NEP) to restructure economic imbalance in Malaysia.

Malaysia’s victory in the market raid saw PNB gain 51 per cent of the British plantation juggernaut through an aggressive purchase of large amount of stocks.

Khalid later became Guthrie chief executive officer from 1995 to 2003.