Tan Siyou Preps Debut Feature ‘Amoeba’ With ‘Stranger Eyes’ Producer Akanga

Singaporean filmmaker Tan Siyou will be presenting her first feature, “Amoeba,” this week at the Venice Production Bridge’s Gap-Financing Market. It’s produced by Fran Borgia of Singapore’s Akanga Film Asia (“Tiger Stripes”), who’s currently at the Lido with Yeo Siew Hua’s Golden Lion contender “Stranger Eyes.”

“Amoeba” follows a 16-year-old dropout who ignites a rebellion upon returning to her elite all-girls school, forming a gang with three other misfits. As their clumsy attempts at being gangsters take over the school, the film delves into societal and cultural pressures in Singapore, exploring the burden of conformism in the repressive city-state.

In an interview with Variety ahead of the Venice Film Festival, Tan described her debut as an exploration of her homeland’s “paradox.” She describes Singapore as “open but narrow-minded, Westernized but rooted in Eastern collectivism.” The nation’s post-independence economic transformation turned a sleepy fishing village into a prosperous state, creating expectations that Tan’s generation were compelled to follow.

Tan notes that those who benefited from Singapore’s economic miracle were hesitant to disrupt the status quo and often traded certain freedoms for material comfort. Her generation, however, was “never allowed to question” the structures behind this prosperity. Tan explained that schools in Singapore serve as instruments to propagate this system, molding “good” citizens who prioritize society over self from a young age.

The specific school she attended was academically rigorous but also very strict, a disciplinarian environment where conformism was the norm. This environment pushed the narrative that what is good for the nation is also good for the individual.

Tan recalled Orwellian courses like a Good Citizen Class, which emphasized conforming to societal expectations, particularly for girls to become good wives and mothers. “It felt like a training camp,” she said, explaining how the shape of her future was decided by societal expectations rather than her own aspirations.

As she grew older, Tan began to see the underlying control mechanisms within her school, which paralleled societal controls. She highlighted how punitive laws and stringent rules ensure obedience and restrict self-expression in the name of economic growth and social harmony.

Based in Los Angeles, Tan always harbored a secret desire to pursue film studies, initially seeing it as a distant dream. Her time at Wesleyan University, where she earned a degree in art and film, and her directing fellowship at the American Film Institute introduced her to a newfound freedom of thought and possibilities.

“Being in a dark room with strangers watching the same projected light and sound makes me feel close to other people. It’s this very special kind of intimacy that made me want to become a filmmaker,” she reflected.

Writing the script for “Amoeba” was a revelation for Tan, helping her to “unlearn many narratives and confront the repression” of her teen years. She described the process as one of excavation, uncovering buried aspects of her past. “Behind the camera, I’m also somehow in front of it,” she said.

Producer Fran Borgia describes Tan as a “rare filmmaker” and immediately recognized the need to help her make her debut film when they met five years ago.

“I don’t choose projects based on their merits alone; I select the people I work with,” Borgia told Variety. Initially drawn to Tan’s potential as a filmmaker, he became deeply engaged with the story behind “Amoeba” as she shared its significance.

“I thrive on challenges, and this project presents a significant one,” Borgia continued. “Securing financing for a first-time female director with a deeply personal and unconventional story is no easy feat, but that’s exactly what drew me to it. The journey has been tough but incredibly rewarding, and we’re just getting started.”

Source: Variety