A celebration of the much-anticipated 27th annual Singapore International Film Festival has kicked off this week with screenings of over 160 independent films from 52 countries. It is both the largest and longest-running event for worldwide filmmakers and fans in Singapore. With this global platform, each year promises more talent, inspiration and entertainment than the last.
No topics are left untouched, no plots are too bizarre and no secrets are safe in this year’s salacious top 20 picks. Here are the first 10 films we know are a must-see at this year’s festival.
Sweet Bean
BY NAOMI KAWASE / JAPAN, FRANCE, GERMANY
The beauty of food and friendship leaves a delightful taste in your heart as a struggling baker takes a chance on an old woman looking for work. Her hands create the most delicious sweet bean paste and her heart opens to all who sense it.
The movie, beautifully shot and acted, earns its ultimate sense of hope by confronting real heartbreak head-on, and with compassion. - New York Times
I, Daniel Blake
BY KEN LOACH / UK, FRANCE, BELGIUM
As the benefits of a widowed man in poor health are threatened, he is forced to cheat the system with a single mother in a similar predicament. A unique relationship forms as a result. This one-of-a-kind story will pull the heartstrings and emotions of audiences everywhere.
I, Daniel Blake" is one of Loach's finest films, a drama of tender devastation that tells its story with an unblinking neorealist simplicity that goes right back to the plainspoken purity of Vittorio De Sica. - Variety
Headshot
BY THE MO BROTHERS - TIMO TJAHJANTO, KIMO STAMBOEL / INDONESIA
Iko Uwais is one of Indonesia’s martial arts experts and he shines brightly in this action-packed thriller. Unforgettable fight scenes and psychological darkness combine to portray the journey of a young man and what he must endure after waking up from a coma with no memory, and several enemies.
…plenty of bone-crunching and bloody gunplay, but also allegory of Indonesia's troubled quest for a new identity as it still emerges from decades of oppressive “parenting” under dictatorial president Suharto. - Sight and Sound
A Dragon Arrives!
BY MANI HAGHIGHI / IRAN
This 2016 Iranian film delivers an enticing and haunting story beginning on January 22, 1965, just one day after the Iranian Prime Minister’s assassination. Puzzling twists and turns give this documentary-style film an edge that enhances reality.
An entertaining, mind-bending wild camel chase. - Hollywood reporter
Girl Asleep
BY ROSEMARY MYERS / AUSTRALIA
Hormones rage and awkwardness prevails as this new “cult classic” hits the big screen. Greta Driscoll is approaching her 15th birthday and desperately wants to keep her childhood alive. Watch in amusement as she stumbles through this stage of adolescence.
Girl Asleep isn't easy to categorize. It's a wild curiosity that shifts on a whim. In that sense, there couldn't be a better metaphor for the inner workings of a teenage girl's mind. - Washington Post
Eternity
BY TRAN ANH HUNG / FRENCH, BELGIUM
As the title hints, Eternity is a beautiful look at all the stages of life, and at the eternal elegance of love. Beautiful scenery and flawless acting transport you to a new space and time, from birth to death, and everything in between.
Birth is always a miracle, no matter how many times we witness it; death is always sudden and often meaningless, no matter how many times it touches our lives. - Variety
Don’t Look at Me That Way
BY UISENMA BORCHU / GERMANY
Single mother Iva is intrigued by her beautiful new neighbour, Hedi. A lust between the women grows into more than either expected. As Iva’s father enters the picture, emotions take a shocking turn and truths are revealed in unexpected ways.
It has interesting characters and a story that is known but told in an odd but at least a first different way. - Screen Anarchy
Illegitimate
BY ADRIAN SITARU / ROMANIA, POLAND, FRANCE
This Romanian film was one of the most anticipated films of the year, putting the spotlight on taboo topics and a forbidden relationship between two siblings. Illegitimate leaves you emotionally confused and delightfully disillusioned with its unique plot.
Even if the result is not quite as effective or disturbing as “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”, the Cannes 2007 winner, it is bound to shock quite a few sensitive minds and trigger passionate arguments about morality, incest and brotherly affection. - Screendaily
All We Had
BY KATIE HOLMES / USA
The mystery of fate steps in to help a mother and daughter who know only a life of theft and addiction. An unlucky break-in becomes their worst nightmare. They are stuck in one place, a place they have already stolen from. Freedom may be disguised as a misfortune in this wonderful tale.
Critical scrutiny has never hurt Holmes's career. It still won't, now that she's a director. - Screen International
Bangkok Nites
BY KATSUYA TOMITA / JAPAN, FRANCE, THAILAND, LAOS
With an excellent soundtrack, this film gives you an up-close and personal look at the hustle and bustle of the nightlife of Bangkok. A desirable escort rekindles love with a former client as they go on a journey together.
…creating the strongest work of his career to date, and one of the most impressive films to emerge out of Japan in the last decade. - FourThreeFilm.com
