Boy's Will Be Boys?

Amir Ahnaf, Aedy Ashraf and Sky Iskandar on legacy, masculinity and breaking the cycles of toxic boyhood.

- Asha Farisha

The journey from boy to man is anything but linear, and masculinity means different things to different people. For actors Amir Ahnaf, Aedy Ashraf and Sky Iskandar, this complex theme is not just lived through their boyhood but revisited through their portrayals of Kahar, Beja and Megat in the much-anticipated Projek Kahar: Order Breeds Chaos.

Set in the cloistered halls of Malaysia’s esteemed boarding schools, the movie probes the many facets of masculinity, part of which includes bullying. What goes on behind these institutions that are often synonymised with education and bright futures, and what lessons — or worse, scars — do these boys take with them once they leave? Men’s Folio Malaysia sits with the actors of Projek Kahar: Order Breeds Chaos to pick their thoughts on what it means to grow up as a man today and where bullying belongs in this topic.

OUR FATHER’S SONS

Legacy is the central theme of Projek Kahar: Order Breeds Chaos, a narrative that follows Kahar’s fractured relationship with his father and the intense pressure to live up to the image of his older brother, Beja. There are times when educational institutions can plant the seed of fear or inadequacies in our minds, but home is where similar problems can start, too.

The phrase kita anak ayah, meaning “we are our father’s sons”, echoes throughout Projek Kahar: Order Breeds Chaos. In Malay culture, the concept of