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Amoeba

Siyou Tan

Singapore, Netherlands, France, Spain, South Korea

Director's Biography

Siyou Tan is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker originally from Singapore. Her short films Cold Cut (2024), Strawberry Cheesecake (2021) and Hello Ahma (2019) were selected for the Festival de Cannes, the Locarno Film Festival, and the Berlin and Toronto International Film Festivals, among others. She is an alum of Talents Tokyo, the Busan Film Academy, and the Universal Directors Initiative. She studied film and art at Wesleyan University before going on to a directing fellowship at the American Film Institute. Amoeba, her feature-length directorial debut, had its premiere at TIFF in 2025.

2025
99
English, Mandarin
Fiction
Screenings :
Thur 04 / 15:00 / Palais des Congrès Salle des Ministres
Fri 05 / 18:00 / Cinéma le Colisée
Thur 04 / 15:00 / Palais des Congrès Salle des Ministres
Fri 05 / 18:00 / Cinéma le Colisée

In Singapore, 16-year-old dropout Choo returns to her elite all-girls Chinese school to join the graduating class. Her small acts of rebellion toward her tyrannical teachers attract the admiration of three other misfits. Choo confides in them about the ghost in her room, and the new friends come up with the idea of using a camcorder to capture evidence. The four become inseparable, and meet an unlikely kindred spirit—elderly Uncle Phoon. Inspired by his stories about the triad gangs that ruled the streets of colonial Singapore, the girls decide to form a gang. But how can they do that in modern Singapore, where even chewing gum is illegal?

Director Siyou Tan

Producer Fran Borgia, Denis Vaslin, Antoine Simkine, Luisa Romeo, Han Sunhee

Screenwriter Tan Siyou

Cinematographer Neus Ollé

Production Designer Sam Manacsa

Editor Félix Rehm

Sound Jaim Sahuleka

Music P.R2B

Ranice Tay, Nicole Lee, Lim Shi-An, Genevieve Tan, Jack Kao, Ng Mun Poh

Production Companies Akanga Film Asia, Volya Films, Les Films d’Antoine, Mararía Films, The Widelog Office

International Sales Company Diversion

Pays

Singapore, Netherlands, France, Spain, South Korea

année

2025

durée

99

langue

English, Mandarin