Singapore's 'Ah Girl' Brings Childhood Memory to Toronto Screens
Singaporean director Ang Geck Geck Priscilla's debut feature 'Ah Girl', drawn from her own childhood, premieres in North America at TIFF.
Singaporean filmmaker Ang Geck Geck Priscilla turned to her own past for her first feature, "Ah Girl," which is set to make its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The film centres on a seven-year-old girl coping with her parents' separation in 1990s Singapore. Ang has said the bulk of the story — roughly 70 per cent — comes from her own childhood, with the remainder shaped from imagined "what if" scenarios.
One of the film's pivotal moments, in which a father considers giving away one of his two daughters, echoes a real conversation between Ang's father and grandmother. Her father, who was very young when she was born, felt he could not raise the children well and wanted to place them elsewhere. Her grandmother stepped in and stopped the plan, arguing that the family could look after the girls itself. The sisters ultimately stayed with the family, though they were separated for a period.
Ang said the project grew out of a feeling that adults seldom take children seriously. She wanted the story told from a child's viewpoint so that grown-ups might better grasp how much children notice and feel at an early age.
Making a film about her own family was not straightforward. Ang said she was initially anxious about how her relatives would respond, but came to regard the process as a kind of therapy, since she had never spoken to them about what she went through. She reasoned that honesty was worth the risk, and that if her family could not accept the film, it would say something about their love for her. Hearing from viewers who recognised their own experiences in the story has also made her feel less alone.
On the festival invitation, Ang described herself as honoured, noting that while the film had screened at other festivals, it had not had a world or international premiere. She said the TIFF selection carried real weight for her and that she was excited to attend. Her family is expected to watch the film when it screens in Singapore.
"Ah Girl" previously took the Youth Jury Award at the 55th International Film Festival Rotterdam this year. Its North American premiere at TIFF is scheduled for September 16.