SOLOS International Feature Competition

The algebra of cliché holds that a picture is worth a thousand words, but it never fits silence into the equation. In SOLOS, co-directors Loo Zihan and Kan Lume have succeeded at the seemingly impossible task of creating a film that exists in the moments between conversations.

Based on the true story of a teacher-student love affair in Singapore , SOLOS depicts the crushing quiet of a doomed relationship. As the couple, Lim Yu-Beng and Zihan paint a harrowing picture of love in its final breaths, mixing passion with cruelty, jealousy and betrayal. The couple’s story is juxtaposed with the sadness of Zihan’s mother (Goh Guat Kian), who mourns both her son’s choices and their dismal consequences.

The wonderful cast weaves its way through a stark, washed-out world, but we see brief flashes of full color that almost sear the eyes with their vibrancy. One imagines that if these characters ever spoke, their words would hit our ears, and our hearts, with the same force.