Man on the Run, directed by Cassius Michael Kim, uses present-day documentary techniques such as re-enactments, flashy graphics, informative titles and namedropping celebrities to bring to life an epic financial scandal that cost billions of dollars. Among a variety of talking heads interviewed in the documentary film included breaking journalist Clare Rewcastle-Brown; opposition and government politicians from Malaysia; whistleblower Xavier André Justo who discusses his motivations and how this affected his family’s life; and American investigators working for the Department of Justice.
It is the initial scenes which make you do a double take showing photos with people like Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Paris Hilton or Miranda Kerr among others together with mysterious Jho Low on one side. This appears impractical until movie claims that every star was paid huge appearance fees to be seen with him. (The stars declined to participate in the film.) The idea was that Jho Low should appear respectable enough so as to sustain these absurd endeavors of his concerning looting of a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.
The film successfully develops the narrative about 1MDB – sovereign wealth fund -how it came into existence and how Jho Low allegedly drained it out while funding his expensive lifestyle full of celebrity “friends.” So outrageous.
Cassius Michael Kim does not only document but goes beyond to show that this was not without any victims because Malaysians were left without benefiting from funds meant for their good yet they are still required to pay back their debts. (I am reminded of a friend whose brand new car got stolen only two days after he bought it leaving him stuck making payments for years on a loan he used to buy it in the first place. And then he had to purchase another car – crap box- so he could get around.)
Malaysians have been left paying for the theft committed by an unknown man who went missing thereafter. Man on the run compellingly argues that systems supporting wide spread graft of this kind are still present not only in Malaysia but worldwide, a sobering message for the first week of a new year.
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