KUALA LUMPUR, May 22 — Cinemas in the country were screening Anwar: The Untold Story an average of five times per location, the Malaysian Association of Film Exhibitors (MAFE) said after the movie’s producer alleged sabotage when it failed to hit sales targets.

MAFE rejected the claim that its members were intentionally hindering the movie’s performance or were purportedly unsupportive of the local moviemakers.

"Local cinema exhibitors have an average of 5 movie showtimes for Anwar: The Untold Story scheduled per location, covering 70 per cent of locations across the country,” the MAFE said in a statement today.

"A wider range of showtimes are available at central cinema locations.”

Earlier today, distributor DMY Creation alleged "sabotage” by some cinemas, claiming these were refusing to screen the movie after its opening weekend.

It also complained that some locations only had four screenings of the movie despite the capacity for 10 times the number of showings.

The movie is about the 1993-1998 period of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s political career during the first Mahathir administration, including the eventual birth of the Reformasi movement.