Muhammad Iqbal Mazlan continues to direct after losing his sight, relying on detailed visualisation and close collaboration with his crew to shape scenes and performances. (Bernama pics)KUALA LUMPUR: When Muhammad Iqbal Mazlan woke up one morning in March 2023, everything had gone black.

The 37-year-old actor and director had been working on a documentary script the night before when he felt unusually tired and developed severe eye pain. He fell asleep expecting the discomfort to pass; instead, he woke to find that he could no longer see.

“I was actually in good health and had no unusual symptoms,” he recalled. “When I woke up, everything was pitch black. I had lost my sight.”

Iqbal said the cause was a condition called frosted branch angiitis linked to a cytomegalovirus infection: a diagnosis that brought an abrupt halt to a career he had spent years building across television, theatre and film.