Die Filmfestspiele von Venedig 2024 - Interview mit Siew Hua Yeo
·21 min·2 clips
Siew Hua Yeo's Stranger Eyes is the first Singapore film competing for the Golden Lion at Venice.
The episode is an interview with director Siew Hua Yeo conducted at the Venice Film Festival, focusing on his film Stranger Eyes. Yeo reveals this is his first time at Venice with a film and that it marks the first Singaporean entry in the main competition for the Golden Lion. He describes the film's premise involving a father who spies on a suspect after his daughter is kidnapped, exploring themes of surveillance and voyeurism. Yeo explains the inspiration came from Singapore's densely populated environment, where neighbors watch each other while the state monitors them. He connects this to broader societal issues, such as social media's role in making being seen essential for existence. The director discusses how cinema inherently involves voyeurism, citing influences like Rear Window and Blow-Up. Yeo delves into the transformative power of watching, suggesting that intense observation can lead to mirroring the observed person. He addresses social isolation in the film, linking it to the alienating effects of digital watching. The conversation shifts to how surveillance has evolved, with the pandemic making self-surveillance a social responsibility rather than just a privacy concern. Yeo talks about the film's visual style, which uses multiple perspectives like surveillance cameras to reflect different subjectivities. He shares details about the casting process, highlighting actor Lee Kang-shen's role for his powerful gaze and minimal dialogue. Yeo mentions the film was written 10 years ago and rewritten to stay relevant amid changing surveillance contexts. He reflects on the ending's openness and bold choices. When asked about future projects, Yeo is vague but considering adaptations. The interview concludes with his hope that audiences will learn to look with more attention in an age of scrolling.
