ACF
Asian Cinema Fund
Script Development Fund
2010 Script Development Fund
LIST It must be a Camel
| Category | Asian Project |
|---|---|
| Project | It must be a Camel |
| Director | Charlotte LIM Lay Kuen |
| Country | Malaysia |
| Director's Profile |
Born in the historical town of Malacca in 1981, Charlotte Lim has assisted in direction and production for Malaysian new wave pioneers like James Lee and Ho Yuhang. In 2005, Charlotte got the opportunity to work as assistant director for notable directors like Tsai Ming Liang on I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone and Ang Lee on Lust, Caution. She has continued her dedication to being an assistant director for her fellow Malaysian new wave filmmakers in the multi-award-winning Flower in the Pocket (Liew Seng Tat). Recently she contributed as the dead of art department in Tan Chui Mui’s latest film Year without a Summer. Her own filmography includes La Invitation (2005) and Escape (2008). Both these 25-minute short films traveled to film festivals abroad. Especially Escape has been screened at international film festivals in Oberhausen, Rotterdam, Pusan and Vancouver. In 2009, Charlotte completed her debut feature My Daughter which was entirely shot on location at one of the UNESCO World Heritage Historical Towns, Malacca. It won the Jury Prize at the Marrakech International Film Festival (2009). Renowned Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who chaired the jury panel, highly praised the film as pure cinema. It also won the International Critics Award at the Deauville Asian Film Festival this year. The film was selected to be shown at various international film festivals including Pusan, Vancouver, Rotterdam, Göteborg, Buenos Aires, Creteil, Granada Cines Del Sur. |
- Synopsis
- A lone man chances upon a dead amphibian on the road. He takes it home. He opens the creature and finds eggs. But they are not ordinary eggs. So he can’t eat them. Soon, he finds another dead lizard on the road, the same spot where he found the first one. It would have been fine if he had just walked away from it, but he doesn’t. He takes it home again. No eggs this time, just a lot of jewelry in the stomach. His lonely life isn’t quiet anymore. He is pursued by a host of eclectic characters, which includes a woman who is possibly in love with him.
- Director's Note
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The man and woman in this story appeared out of my blurred memories. They showed up one time and again like a punctual soldier in my dreams. Steering through my vague memories, I place them in my own creation of time and place. When I finished writing, they were born again, but they also die on paper. Their lives are sadder and lonelier than my own. That’s the fate I have bestowed upon them. If they could refute, they would leap out and hit my head and yell at me: “I don’t deserve this sad life. I want lots and lots of happiness!” Though piercing, it sounds frank, and not unreasonable.
Allow me to indulge in melancholy one more time; I promise I’ll write a comedy the next time.
- Festivals
- Still Cut