Nilam is a 1949 Malaysian film, produced by director B. S. Rajhans.
The film tells the story of a young Javanese man, Ahmad, who leaves his village with a magic protective dagger given to him by his mother. He takes to the seas, eager to discover the world. He reaches the exotic Arabian coast, and travels all the way to Egypt, encountering belly dancers, harem women, etc. He meets Princess Nilam and falls in love. Nilam's father will allow Ahmad to marry her only if he brings back a blue diamond guarded by monsters at a faraway location
A scene from Nilam was shot in some of Singapore's granite quarries. Below are stills from the film showcasing the granite quarries. The location of these quarries was not officially archived thus, it was a challenge for us to relate it to our project but it was also a very important finding as it showed how the quarries looked like before they were converted into nature parks.
The ridge in the background is roughly 15-20 metres tall. This is similar to the ridges around Dairy Farm Nature Park.
"Quarries appear to have begun operating successively between 1900 and 1920, for which latter year a map is available showing some of the quarries already of a large size. Granite was required for the reconstruction of Singapore Harbour, at Tanjong Pagar, for construction of the Causeway at Woodlands, for railway ballast, and for road chippings (Lum & Sharp, 1996). There were three main quarries nearby, now known by the names Singapore Quarry, Hindhede Quarry and Dairy Farm Quarry. " (Davison, and Chew)
This excerpt raised the possibilities of "Nilam" being filmed at Bukit Timah Quarry and the possibilities of using archived stills from the scene as reference images for our work.
Survey Map showing the presence of a quarry. 1890 -1943 (National Archives)
Aerial photograph of PWD Quarry ( currently known as Dairy Farm Quarry) in 1963 by RAF Far East Command. (National Archives)
Work-In-Progress
We are currently in the midst of building a 3D landscape using the rock samples taken from Dairy Farm Quarry. More samples will be collected from the other two quarries next week.
A view of the "summit"
Workflow in Unity3D
References :
Davison, G.W.H., and P.T. Chew. "Historical Review Of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Singapore". Gardens' Bulletin Singapore, vol 71, no. suppl.1, 2019, pp. 19-40. National Parks Board, doi:10.26492/gbs71(suppl.1).2019-03.
"THE HUNTER". THE HUNTER, 2020, https://sgfilmhunter.wordpress.com/.
"Singapore Film Locations Archive". Singapore Film Locations Archive, 2020, https://sgfilmlocations.com/.
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