TIGER STRIPES Discovery

Malaysia’s Oscar^® submission for Best International Feature

Screening to be followed by a conversation with director Amanda Nell Eu.

The first Malaysian film to win the Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize, Amanda Nell Eu’s debut feature reimagines a classic tale with an endearing DIY spirit and irreverent playfulness. Precocious and quick-witted 12-year-old Zaffan (vibrantly embodied by newcomer Zafreen Zairizal) spends her days rebelling against the strict Islamic religious school and swimming in the lake with her best friends. That is until she gets her first period before anyone else in her class. Soon, other parts of her body begin to transform in terrifyingly grotesque ways. Ostracized by her peers and the village community, with a rumored creature lurking in the forest, Zaffan must decide to submit to society’s pressure to conform, or embrace her monstrous self, warts and all. Taking cues from 1950s Southeast Asian monster cinema and Gen-Z internet culture, TIGER STRIPES bursts onto the scene as an electrifying addition to the Monstrous-Feminine coming-of-age canon. –Anna Li