Sandcastle by Boo Junfeng

Singaporean cinema, rarely diffused in festivals, comes to us finally… This year the Critics’ Week is making it happen. This is young (26-year-old) director Boo Junfeng’s first feature, so he is competing for the Caméra d’Or as well. Though the real concern of the film is not necessarily aesthetic but political.

Sandcastle is the story of a young Singaporean searching for his family history: his father died in exile in Malaysia because he was a student leader in the 60s, and his mother refuses to broach the subject. When his grandfather came to explain to him, he died, and his grandmother has Alzheimer’s, so she can tell him things when her memory is good. This story can easily be paralleled with that of the island of Singapore. This political perspective is presented by Boo Jenfung through a touching family drama with the family on the verge of being torn apart. The cast is composed equally of experienced actors and non-professionals. For the young lead, Joshua Tan, it was his first movie role – he’s usually bassist in a group in Singapore. This choice gives Sandcastle a spontaneity in the depiction of complex relationships between the protagonists which the director was striving for and which we can truly feel.

By Laurie Zaffarana


INTERVIEW WITH BOO JUNFENG