Landmark
Societies are often built top-down, governed by policies and systems according to some people’s vision of what makes a “better” society—but who gets left behind in the process?
Co-presented with the Asian Film Archive, Landmark showcases recent restorations of seven international classics from the 1970s to the 2000s, including a 25th anniversary presentation of Lagaan (2001). These rediscovered films explore the invisible tensions between institutions and the people living in these structures, through stories of those who navigate, resist and survive them.
Opening Film
Cageman
A colourful cast of working-class Hong Kongers resists eviction from their bedspace apartments in this humanistic reflection of pre-1997 Hong Kong.
Jacob Cheung / Hong Kong / 1992 / 150 min / NC16 (Coarse Language) / Southeast Asian Premiere
Special Presentation
Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
Set during the British Raj, the people of a small, drought-stricken village in Central India wager on a game of cricket against their ruthless colonial rulers in order to avoid paying high taxes.
Ashutosh Gowariker / India / 2001 / 224 min / PG / Southeast Asian Premiere
Feature Films
Amores Perros
A fatal car crash links three strangers’ lives: a young man entering the world of dogfighting, a supermodel whose life is derailed after the accident, and an ex-guerrilla trying to reconcile with his past.
Alejandro González Iñárritu / Mexico / 2000 / 154 min / M18 (Intimate Scenes) / Singapore Premiere
In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones
In this campus satire set in 1970s Delhi, a ragtag group of architecture students express their restless idealism against a system that rewards conformity and punishes dissent.
Pradip Krishen / India / 1989 / 112 min / PG13 (Some Coarse Language) / Southeast Asian Premiere
Macho Dancer
Pol moves from the countryside to Manila in hopes of earning more money in the flesh industry. Amid the city’s chaos, he learns about the harsh yet alluring male prostitution business.
Lino Brocka / Philippines / 1988 / 133 min / R21 (Sexual Scenes and Homosexual Content) / Singapore Premiere
My Name Ain’t Suzie
Shui Mei leaves her fishing village for the city, attracted by the seemingly glamorous life of a prostitute. Across three decades, from the raucous heyday of bars serving foreign soldiers to their quiet wane, she defiantly forges her own path.
Angie Chen / Hong Kong / 1985 / 103 min / NC16 (Some Nudity and Violence) / Southeast Asian Premiere
PanelStory, or How a Housing Development is Born
A curious old man weaves his way through a labyrinthine housing estate. Through a dizzying exploration of neighbourly happenings in a public housing complex near Prague, the film forms an allegory for the complex dynamics of community-building.
Věra Chytilová / Czechoslovakia / 1979 / 101 min / Southeast Asian Premiere