2023, 90 minutes, Malaysia/ Singapore/France, 1.85, Color, 5.1 Sound, in Cantonese, Vietnamese, Malay and Mandarin with English subtitles
Sales/Festivals: Diversion (Thailand)
In an old apartment complex in Kuala Lumpur, we see lives in unseen corners. The stairwell of a near-abandoned floor of this apartment is one of these corners, where a woman and her daughter take refuge for their secret meetings. They meet at the top of this stairwell, play games and attempt to interact in this stolen time and place they share.
The mother thinks she knows what is best for the daughter, while the daughter longs for a promise from the mother. Later, they’ll have to return separately to their own homes in the same apartment complex. The woman will continue her chores and she will live her life in between spaces she is so familiar with.
But nothing is quite what it seems.
Chia Chee Sum is a Malaysian filmmaker, an alumnus of the Asian Film Academy (Busan), FIRST Training Camp (Xining), and recipient of Talents Tokyo 2020 Award. His short film HIGH WAY (2018), won the Jury Prize at the Busan International Short Film Festival. He is co-founder of theCommonist, a film and animation production company based in Malaysia and Thailand. His feature film debut, OASIS OF NOW, was developed at the SEAFIC Southeast Asia Fiction Film Lab and presented at Locarno Open Doors Hub, Talents Tokyo and Berlinale Talent Project Market.
"Identity, incomplete understanding and urban poverty
are among the many themes touched upon in “Oasis of Now,”
which is set to make its debut in the prestigious New
Currents competition section of the Busan International
Film Festival."
- Patrick Frater, Variety
74th Berlin International Film Festival
Chia Chee Sum
Ta Thi Diu
Aster Yeow Ee
Abd Manaf Bin Rejab
Lee Yve Vonn
Fran Borgia
Xavier Rocher
Chia Chee Sum
Jimmy Gimferrer
Chloe Yap Mun Ee
Chia Chee Sum
theCommonist
Afternoon Pictures
Akanga Film Asia
La Fabrica Nocturna Cinema
