Keswick Film Club - Ilo Ilo

Synopsis

Nine-year-old Jiale is living with his parents Teck and Hwee Leng in Singapore in the 1990s economic crash. Hwee Leng is pregnant and Filipino Teresa is hired as a nanny-cum-all-round-dogsbody. The family is full of secrets and their already dysfunctional life is further disturbed by the growing bond between Jiale and Teresa.

Director Anthony Chen has won awards before this film for his shorts including Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals, but this is his first attempt at a feature film. Chen, who was trained at Britain's National Film and Television school, is now winning awards (Best first feature film at Cannes) and praise around the globe for this too.

The story (based on Chen's own life) revolves mainly around the badly behaved Jiale and his relationship with Teresa the impoverished nanny, against the background of the problems imposed on all families in Singapore by the economic crash. As Charlotte O'Sullivan says in the Evening Standard - 'It's tough to go down in the world. This superb drama from Singapore asks what happens when you're already at the bottom?'