SINGAPORE/ FRANCE
2016 – 1H52 – IN TAMIL, MANDARIN, ENGLISH
WORLD PREMIERE
Synopsis
Siva, a Singaporean Indian man is released after years in prison for contraband smuggling. Unable to find forgiveness from his mother, he begins a quest to locate his ex-wife and daughter. Just as he finds solace and hope in the company of an illegal Chinese prostitute, he is confronted with an unbearable truth about his family. How far will he go in order to redeem himself from his guilt?
Trailer
DIRECTOR: K. Rajagopal
PRODUCTION: Fran Borgia - Claire Lajoumard - Jeremy Chua
SCENARIO: Jeremy Chua - K. Rajagopal
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Michael Zaw
EDITING: Fran Borgia
SOUND: Justin Loh - Roman Dymny
PRODUCTION DESIGN: James Page
CAST:
Sivakumar Palakrishnan
Huang Lu
Seema Biswas
Udaya Soundari
Nithiyia Rao
Indra Chandran
PRODUCTION
AKANGA FILM ASIA
Fran Borgia
Tel. +65 96231168
franborgia@akangafilm.com
CO-PRODUCTION
ACROBATES FILMS
Claire Lajoumard
Tel. +33 (0)6 10 32 86 07
info@acrobatesfilms.fr
SALES
ALPHA VIOLET
Virginie Devesa
Tel. +33 (0)6 20 41 11 37
virginie@alphaviolet.com
Keiko Funato
Tel. +33 (0)6 29 83 51 08
keiko@alphaviolet.com
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
THE PR FACTORY
Marie-France Dupagne
Tel. +33 (0)7 85 83 58 61
mariefrance@theprfactory.com
Barbara Van Lombeek
Tel. +33 (0)6 45 07 41 54
barbara@theprfactory.com
CONTACT CANNES
AKANGA FILM ASIA
Fran Borgia
Tel. +65 96231168
franborgia@akangafilm.com
ACROBATES FILMS
Claire Lajoumard
Tel. +33 (0)6 10 32 86 07
info@acrobatesfilms.fr
“I was born in a multi-ethnic country and I am of a race that is a minority there. I used to have an identity crisis. For a long time, I had struggled with identifying as Indian, because very often I felt I was considered an outsider in my own country, which is predominantly Chinese. The characters in the film are ordinary average people that you cross paths with in your everyday life in Singapore, but never notice, because, as outsiders, they are not seen, not heard.
Singapore is a very peaceful country, but racism exists in a subtle way, which makes it even more dangerous in a sense. It is a nation-state whose citizens sometimes forget they came from migrant stock themselves, but are uncomfortable with new migrants and minorities. Siva is an outsider three-fold: minority race, wrong side of the tracks, wrong side of the law. He has made some questionable decisions, but also decisions are taken out of his hands and now he is pushed to breaking point.
I did not relate the whole story of the film to Sivakumar Palakrishnan all at one go. I wanted him to really discover the nuances of the character slowly through meeting real persons, getting him to observe them and experience their space during the rehearsal process to really put himself in Siva’s shoes.
There is limited funding for art-house films in Singapore. It took me 20 years to make my first feature. When I first started out making my short films, there was no funding available at all, so I could not venture into making a feature film then. It took help from across all sides of the world to get this to the big screen.”
Interview by Olivier Pélisson
