Discoveries from Singapore World Cinema

A story about a doll exploring the delicate balance between guidance and autonomy, and the courage it takes to break free and dance to the rhythm of one’s own life.

A college international student wants to get some action with her crush by spiking his drink at a party before she flies back to her home country the next day, but everything spirals out of her control.

An astronaut is faced with a difficult decision after the death of his only older brother. Stay home or chase his dreams?

1956 / Keadilan Ilahi / Divine Justice / K. M. Basker / Malay Film Productions

Three stories set across Serbia, Singapore and Spain follow immigrants and their uneasy relationships with foreign landscapes. In Serbia, a man comes back to his hometown after years living abroad. He feels estranged while visiting places he once knew well, and is confused about the disappearance of the intimate connection he had with once familiar landscapes. In Singapore, an expatriate couple living a monotonous life face upheaval after an encounter with cosplayers in their neighborhood. This is followed by a trip to a coral reef, which has managed to survive in an industrial area. In the final segment, a couple from Latin America arrives in Spain to search for a better life. They are ready to explore the new landscape, but uneasiness and fear of the unknown haunt them.

If Film 1 is about departure, reminding us that a love shared is a love that will never be lost, then Film 2 is about reunion, reminding us that in everywhere we look, love is watching over us.

The Face is a documentary that explores the hardships of being a female boxer in Singapore and a boxer's quest to return to her former glory.

A hitman action film set in Singapore, this film was an eight-minute spoof movie that won Jack Neo the Best Director award in the 1998 Singapore International Film Festival Silver Screen Awards. The short was later expanded into a telefilm starring Neo’s frequent collaborators.

A person brushes the teeth of a dog and turns into a bus.

A short portrait documentary of Liew Chew, a hard working illiterate who perseveres as one of Singapore’s last traditional bread makers. Old in age, his reflection on work and life frames the ongoing transition of his son taking over the family business and legacy.

Law-abiding and henpecked civil servant SIRAJ has been living within the comfortable boundaries of his life, playing it as safe as possible. A short-lived attempt at investing gets him into financial trouble, but whets his appetite for risk. Against his wife’s instructions, SIRAJ decides that a trip up to the casinos in Malaysia is his quickest way out. His mistakes catch up with him in the worst ways possible, forcing him to come to terms with the path he’s taken.

“Sad Birds Still Fly” is a documentary exploring the beauty and challenges of local and migratory birds in Singapore, impacted by urbanisation. Presented as a radio podcast with bird calls and ambient sounds, it immerses viewers in the habitats these birds call home. Featuring insights from bird photographers, ecological experts, and ornithologists, the film highlights critical issues like bird collisions, deforestation, and extinction threats. Ultimately, it delivers a message of hope for protecting and coexisting with nature and wildlife.

“Homecoming” is an intimate short film about Jie, a woman returning home to Singapore for her younger sister’s wedding. Through a voicemail she leaves on the night of her arrival, we uncover the bittersweetness of this occasion: Jie, the eldest daughter, longs to support her sister, but must do so whilst confronting her fraught relationship with her estranged mother.

Nicholas and Hazimah are athletes in Singapore with special needs. Nicholas was born with Autism, while Hazimah has Global Developmental Delay (GDD). Competing at the highest level, both Nicholas and Hazimah qualified for the Special Olympics in 2023. The competition was both a test of mental and physical strength, not just for them, but for their mothers as well. Here are their stories.

INSPIRASI is a heartfelt drama that explores the delicate balance between the past and present. The story follows Rian, who is trapped in his memories while searching for meaning in life. As he navigates his struggles, the film highlights the importance of letting go of the past and moving forward. Inspirasi serves as a reminder that clinging to memories can prevent personal growth and hinder one’s journey toward self-discovery.

Using the imagery of gossamer threads and their fragility, I reflect on the things that have scarred me, the things that have hurt me, and the things that have made me.

What happens when an image leaves a state archive and enters the feedback loops of an artificial neural network? Inspired by an encounter that the artist had at the Google Cultural Institute with an image originating from the National Gallery Singapore, Figures of History and the Grounds of Intelligence travels back in time to probe the intersecting histories of state planning, global networks and cybernetics that span from the Cold War to the ongoing boom in generative artificial intelligence. Looking into how different historical figurations have come to make up the grounds of “intelligence” that underpin today’s generative text-to-image models, the narrative focuses on what it means for these models to “learn” from history without actually understanding it in order to generate ever-changing distributions of noise. At stake here is the future of representation itself—a future where images appear to have no history to speak of.

“Crossing Over” is a poetic and reflexive documentary that delves into the ways in which people grapple with mortality, connect with the deceased and give meaning to the spaces for the dead. Laying our eyes on burial grounds and places of commemoration and lending our ears to tales of rituals and traditions that surround death, the film brings both the filmmakers and viewers on a journey to “cross over” from the realm of the living to the land for the dead. The transition from graveyards to columbaria and the replacement of cemeteries with modern buildings prompts a much-needed rumination on the significance that the living bestows on those revered sites and rites, which in turn, defines their relationship with the spaces. The film does not and is unable to provide an answer to the meaning of death and space, but rather it strives to provoke contemplation and reflection on the dichotomy of "for the dead or for the living".

With the journey of migrant labourers crossing into Malaya as a point of departure, Priyageetha Dia’s animated video attends to the sea as a speculative site of memory and remembrance. The Sea is a Blue Memory reconfigures colonial narratives of indenture, forming new imaginaries through the gaze of a wandering sea spirit.

​The 49th Hexagram explores the construction of cultural memory and political narrative surrounding the history of the Korean peninsula. Employing the services of an animation studio in Pyongyang, North Korea, Ho Tzu Nyen’s work reinterprets scenes of political uprising and mass demonstration as depicted in South Korean narrative film and television. The project aims to form a direct relationship between South Korea’s political history and the tensions that still define the country’s relationship with its northern counterpart. The result is, in the artist’s words, a “game of exquisite corpse across geopolitical barriers.” The artist developed the experimental soundtrack in collaboration with Korean artists and musicians Bek Hyunjin, Park Minhee, and Ryu Hankil. Offering two vocal renditions of texts from the forty-ninth hexagram of the I-Ching, an ancient Chinese divination manual, the soundtrack composites historical interpretation with translation to speak of revolution and renewal.

A story of a son who tries to redeem himself after causing his parents to divorce.

Flowers for my mother and father’ follows the artist's tender ritual of layering on ‘flowers’ in its different forms, in tandem. Bright plastic flowers in one frame, to adorn an afterlife; and flowered sheets in the other, to swaddle, to soothe and to hold. Reminders of how love manifests in different forms following profound loss, changing shape to fit the ones that continue to love and be loved.

1955 / 遥远寄相思 / Lovesickness Sent From Afar / Hsu Chiao Meng & Yao Ping

A son revisits a long-estranged father, on the day of an impending solar eclipse. An event of cosmic significant coincides with an emotional revelation for father and son.

Be Happy in Singapore

Budi Mulia / Noble Character / M. Wijaya (Hsu Chiao Meng) / Nusantara

Setia / Faithful / A. C. Simmons / Keris

A singaporen film directed by Jaafar Wiryo.

Chinta Murni / Pure Love / Armaya (A. R. Tompel) / Nusantara

Faceoff between Rudhra and Amir. What will happen next?

Thrown into a violent and surreal situation, a Lady is forced too deal with the inevitable mortality of her Girl.

Zohra, Afghanistan’s award-winning first all-female orchestra, has captivated audiences around the world with its musical talent. However, the return of the Taliban, with its rigid and damaging views on women and music, now puts the ensemble in grave danger. With the fall of Kabul, members still in the country have gone into hiding, while those who fled are advocating internationally to rescue their fellow musicians. The question remains: despite the challenges, will they be able to keep their music alive?

A group of friends pursue their artistic ambitions in this coming-of-age story steeped in the innocence and dreaminess of xinyao.

Based on Bukit Brown, a once-prominent cemetery in Singapore, this work is a time capsule of voices, artefacts and critters that inhabit the space. Since early 1900s, the landscape of Bukit Brown has been continually reshaped to make way for building works. Combining video, collage and stop-motion, this work delves into the space of the cemetery as well as text archives, to demonstrate ongoing tensions between culture, nature and infrastructure.

Ginny is a Chinese film graduate in New York City who tries to find her original voice. She slowly becomes independent but also loses her will to keep herself together on the way to her goal.

In a tiny, six-square-meter room, a young Chinese man named Eryang envisions a republic of his own.

Wearing a headdress of flower petals, Rose wanders the streets of Bugis to spread joy and happiness, no matter how funny people think they may be. This whimsical project shot on Super 8 film features some of Singapore’s renowned filmmakers including Sun Koh, Michael Kam, Gözde Zehnder and Yeo Lee Nah.

An average Joe finds his calling after saving the life of a woman attempting suicide. First screened at The Substation’s First Take in 2007, this hilarious look at everyday people trying to be good samaritans explores the idea of the saviour complex in men.

A cat sits in wonder and majesty, listening to the humdrum of its surroundings. Amidst the intense noise, can the cat remain stoic? Screened at The Substation’s First Take in 2014, Afiq Azman’s Cat is a meditation on the sounds of the mundane in a regular housing estate in Singapore.

Streaks of hair and colours weave together furiously, imploding into a frantic vision drawn between exuberance and anxiety. The filmmakers glued their hair to 16mm and Super 8 film leader loops that were played in overlay and modified with ink during projection in this textural expression of a manic feeling of being.

Ain, a 28-year-old full-time patient care assistant, struggles to find a work-life balance. Work can be overwhelming for her on some days but there are days when working as a caregiver brings joy to her life. After a long day of visitations, she always looks forward to her last patient’s house.

A dementia stricken elderly man is disturbed by a mysterious chirping sound in his flat. With the emergence of a cricket, he finds himself in the forest where he finally embraces the shadows of his past.

A trip through the mind of an individual who desperately wants to become someone else.

Short film about the unseen poverty in Singapore and it's homeless people

A woman stands at the edge of a roof garden contemplating suicide only to meet another person there to do the same.

A troubled and abused teenager uses gambling as a coping mechanism but things take a dark turn when greed gets the better of him.

We follow the narrative voices of 3 students; EBBA, AZAD and ANDRI. Three best friends all lost DAFFODIL, the fourth of the group, when she was a victim of suicide. They each navigate life after death and explore their individual long-term fight, flight and freeze responses to the grief and trauma.

Up You Go is a 2D animated short film about a little boy trying to send a star back to the sky. As he tries to send the star back up, he experiences several mishaps that will test his determination.

The film Dewi Murni is an adaptation of Kalidasa’s Shakuntala. This is established through the identification of chronological events that are similar to the story of Shakuntala authored by Kalidasa. Adaptations have been made to the Indian story, transforming it to the Malay version and prominent differences are notable. The principal story of Dewi Murni remains the same whereby the main characters meet in unlikely surroundings, woo and get married. Both King Dushyanta [in Shakuntala] and King Indraloka [in Dewi Murni] lose memory of their wives (in different ways), the heroines lose their signet rings and are rejected by their respective husbands at the palace court. In both stories, the rings are discovered in a fish’s maw and upon its re-emergence, the kings’ memories of their respective wives are regained. In the end after a period of separation, the lovers are reunited. - Sumathi Maniam Raj & Raja Morgan Veerappan

Centrepoint Kids recreates the vibrancy and colour of the iconic mall in the 1980s and the eye-catching subcultures and trends of the youths who hung out at the shopping centre. The film chronicles a youth’s initiation into a group, learning what it takes to be a Centrepoint Kid.

A young air stewardess navigates her new role as a caregiver for her grandmother while building a relationship with her distant father.

Ocean was a girl and now just a paper head. Her brother reminisces the times they shared during their childhood, a sorry experience that birthed emotional scars.

Quaintly narrated and thoughtfully weaved with stock footage, this short film is a creatively homemade live-action interpretation of Walt Disney’s 1937 film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

A homage to 90s coming-of-age slacker comedies such as Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused and Kevin Smith’s Clerks, Baked Beans features the weird and wonderful adventures of two spirited and wayward teenagers, Roro and Rayray, as they venture into the tricky world of the baked beans business, and explore its subversive potentials.

When the pandemic closes the border between Singapore and Malaysia, two sisters are prevented from returning home, although they can see it across the water.

In a world not too different from ours, performers are assimilated into eternal broadcasting systems called 'The Ether'.The connection into this realm sustains and prolongs the life of the physical body, luring in human subjects willing to sacrifice conventional existence in order to be remembered eternally. In this reality, a new generation of pop idols are born, in a memory loop under surveillance. The Ether is a database of all permutations of entertainment, powered by the shards formed by the love of their fans. The loop goes on until there is no one is left to love them. Like an internet connection severed and cut, the illusion shatters.