EXCLUSIVE: Bangkok-based sales agent Diversion has secured rights to Siyou Tan’s coming-of-age drama Amoeba, ahead of the film’s world premiere at Toronto.
Singaporean director Tan’s feature debut revolves around a 16-year-old girl and three rebellious classmates in an elite all-girls Chinese school. Their urge to resist authoritarian teachers drives them to discover the erased stories of mythical gangsters that ruled the streets of colonial Singapore. They then decide to form their own gang in modern Singapore, a country where even feeding pigeons and chewing gum is illegal.
The film will premiere in the Discovery strand of Toronto on September 10.
“Amoeba is a project we’ve poured a great deal of time and dedication into,” said delegate producer Fran Borgia, whose recent credits include Venice 2024 competitor Stranger Eyes and Cannes Competition title Renoir. “We deeply align with the way Diversion has championed auteur-driven Asian cinema in recent years.”
Borgia’s production company Akanga Film Asia leads the Singapore-Netherlands-France-Spain-South Korea collaboration. Co-producers are Volya Films, Les Films d’Antoine, Mararía Films and The Widelog Office. It is also supported by the Singapore Film Commission, Hubert Bals Fund, Aide aux Cinémas du Monde and SFFilm Rainin Grant.
Tan has carved out a reputation through her short films, which include Cannes 2024 Directors’ Fortnight selection Cold Cut, Locarno 2021 title Strawberry Cheesecake, and Hello Ahma, which screened at Toronto in 2019 and the Berlinale.
She is one of six emerging directors involved in recent anthology film Kopitiam Days, which was backed by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to celebrate Singapore’s 60th year of independence.
Diversion’s slate also includes Vietnamese director Ash Mayfair’s Skin Of Youth (also produced by Borgia), which won a special jury award at the New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) last month, and Bangladeshi director Mahde Hasan’s Sand City, which scooped the Proxima grand prize at Karlovy Vary.
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