Paradise City Sales will internationally represent “We Are All Strangers,” the third and final film in Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Cheng’s acclaimed “Growing Up” trilogy. The film is currently in post-production.
Following the Cannes Film Festival Camera d’Or Best Picture winner Iro Iro and Wet Season, We Are All Strangers is an epic tale of modern-day Singapore that highlights class inequality and rethinks the definition of family.
Here’s the first still from the movie:
This film marks the re-teaming of Paradise City Sales and Chen. In addition to handling international sales for “Ilo Ilo” and “Wet Season,” the Paris-based company also produced Chen’s English-language feature “Drift,” starring Cynthia Erivo and Alia Shawkat, which premiered at Sundance.
“We Are All Strangers” will see the return of the acting duo Yeo Yan Yang and Ko Zia Rah, who received critical acclaim for their performances in “Iro Iro” and “Wet Season.” Yeo Yan Yang won the Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actress for “Iro Iro” and the Best Actress Award for “Wet Season,” and Ko Jia Lah was nominated for the same award twice.
“It’s a very personal journey to come back to complete Singapore’s ‘Growing Up’ trilogy with Yeo Yan Yang and Ko Jia Lah. They are actors I have worked with for over 13 years,” Chen said. “Throughout these films, we’ve grown together. My 11-year-old son has grown up, and I’ve grown older. And in many ways, his transformation reflects the heart of this story: how we become strangers to our former selves, and how we find our way back again.”
“We Are All Strangers” was written and directed by Chen and produced through his Singapore-based production company Giraffe Pictures.
Paradise City Sales said in a statement: “We are thrilled to be working with Anthony again as he concludes the Growing Up trilogy. We were thrilled to be a part of this decade-long adventure and witness his growth as a director and the extraordinary evolution of our incredible cast of actors.” “Capturing the passage of time through people and places with such warmth and beauty is a rare cinematic feat, and we can’t wait for the world to see this wonderfully tender finale and share in the laughter and tears.”
Director Cheng became the first Singaporean filmmaker to win the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for “Iro Iro,” and went on to win more than 40 international awards around the world. His second feature, Wet Season, premiered in Toronto and received multiple Golden Horse Award nominations. His recent work includes the Sundance film Drift and the Cannes Un Certain Regard film Breaking Ice.
His new project is supported by the Singapore Film Board, the Red Sea Fund and the MPA APSA Academy Film Fund. Executive producers are Joe Tsai, Arthur Wang, and K.H. Kuok. Paradise City sells all regions except mainland China, Singapore, and Malaysia. Distribution in mainland China will be handled by China’s Lidianth.
“We Are All Strangers” joins Paradise City Sales’ busy slate, which also includes “Tell Me Everything,” which will be at Sundance. Laurent Micheli’s social thriller Nino in Paradise was screened at UniFrance’s Paris Rendez-Vous and was part of the Tallinn Black Nights Critics’ Pick Competition. Post-production titles include Martin Provost’s romantic comedy Love Lessons, Judith Godreche’s A Girl’s Story and Warwick Thornton’s Wolfram.
