Amoeba

Sixteen-year-old tomboy Choo Xin Yu (Ranice Tay) seems like a misfit when she joins a highly competitive, elite all-girls school in Singapore. But she quickly befriends three others who share her rebellious nature. While the girls struggle to fit in, they pledge loyalty to each other and vow to start a gang as a form of resistance. When their rebellious acts — recorded by the girls on a camcorder — are discovered by their teacher, their lives are upended. What keeps haunting Choo may be more than just the ghost she suspects is in her room.

Singapore is a melting pot of Western and Eastern cultures, its famous half-fish, half-lion Merlion mascot perfectly representing the duality of this city-state. Despite its open-minded and multicultural façade, it is also a place with strict rules that are diligently followed by its conformist population. Sprinkled throughout Amoeba are subtle symbols best understood within their cultural context. Something seemingly innocent, like chewing gum for example, becomes an act of rebellion. The only way the girls find liberation is within the confines of a camcorder screen.

Siyou Tan’s debut feature is a profound exploration of paradoxical challenges that present themselves in our quest to establish community, identity, personal autonomy, and individuality.

JUNE KIM