Yasmin Ahmad Dies
Yasmin Ahmad, the controversial Malaysian director, has died. She was 51.
The moviemaker passed away on Saturday (25Jul09) after suffering a brain hemorrhage, according to local media reports.
Ahmad roused outrage in her mostly Muslim homeland after documenting inter-racial romances in her pictures.
She was honoured at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2007, picking up two awards for her movie Mukshin, which portrayed love in pre-teens.
Ahmad also won a string of prizes for 2004 romantic comedy Sepet, which told the tale of a teenage Malay girl who falls in love with a Chinese boy.
Mukshin sparked criticism from Islamic leaders in 2007, who blasted the film for encouraging women to behave like men, branding her work "immoral".