Playtime Sells Yeo Siew Hua’s Venice Competition Title ‘Stranger Eyes’ Across Key European Markets Ahead of World Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)
“Stranger Eyes,” Singaporean director Yeo Siew Hua‘s feature on modern surveillance culture, has been sold by Playtime to a raft of territories ahead of its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
The film, which is in contention for the Golden Lion at Venice, revolves around a young couple who is grappling with the mysterious disappearance of their baby daughter when they start receiving strange videos, realizing that someone has been filming their daily life. The police set up surveillance around their home to catch the voyeur, but the family starts to crumble as secrets unravel under the scrutiny.
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In the run up to its premiere on the Lido, the film has been sold by Playtime to Italy (Europictures), Spain (La Aventura), Baltics (A-One), Portugal (Leopardo Filmes) and Benelux (September Films).
The helmer explained in the press notes for the film that Singapore was the ideal backdrop for this film because it’s a “small island-state” (…) “where there is no escape from the grid, watching and being watched becomes a daily ritual.” He also says the themes of “Stranger Eyes” are timely because our constant need for “visual consumption” which “feels both limitless and alienating.”
Yeo, who previously directed the Locarno prizewinning film “A Land Imagined,” told Variety in an interview that he’s interested in the theme of voyeurism because “cinema has always been fixated about idea of the voyeur and we have many examples of that throughout film history, from Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’ to Haneke and Lynch.”
“Stranger Eyes” is structured as a Singapore-Taiwan-France-U.S. co-venture. It is produced by Fran Borgia for Singapore’s Akanga Film Asia (“A Land Imagined”, “Tiger Stripes”); Stefano Centini for Taiwan’s Volos Films (“Tomorrow Is a Long Time,” “The Settlers”); Jean-Laurent Csinidis for France’s Films de Force Majeure (”Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege,” “A Holy Family”); and Alex C. Lo for the U.S.-based Cinema Inutile (“Club Zero,” “The Settlers”).
The cast includes acclaimed Taiwanese actors Lee Kang-Sheng (“What Time Is It There?”, “Days”) and Wu Chien-Ho (“A Sun”), newcomers Anicca Panna and Xenia Tan, and veterans Vera Chen (“Boluomi”) and Pete Teo (“Barbarian Invasion”).
Playtime is also at Venice with “The Quiet Son,” the third feature by French directors Delphine and Muriel Coulin, which is vying for a Golden Lion.
“Stranger Eyes” premieres on Sept. 5 at Venice.
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