-Labour Day Special-

Wed 01 May

"An illuminating look at the immigrant experience in the glamorous city-scape that's as politically important as it is artistically rendered" - Cultured Vultures

---

SYNOPSIS: I DREAM OF SINGAPORE

After a life-threatening injury, a construction worker lies endlessly in wait to return home. A migrant poet-labourer leads students in dreaming of a river in the afternoon sun. One Muslim devotee cries while praying, wearing his “I ♡ SINGAPORE” shirt. Another fresh-faced youngster arrives, eager to try his luck here too. All this while, a social worker helping the Bengali migrant community in Singapore journeys to their motherland, Bangladesh, discovering deep pain and promise.

The heartfelt, immersive documentary interweaves the natural worlds and cityscapes of Bangladesh and Singapore. Poetically observing the broken bodies, stoic faces, surveilled dormitories, and sprawling construction sites plus shipyards that make up the migrant-labour flow from one of the world’s poorest countries to one of the richest.

As ever-towering skyscrapers built by low-wage, indebted labourers rise, an unexpected bond blossoms between injured migrant worker Feroz and his case worker, Ethan, who goes beyond the call of duty to help his "brother". A hope for human empathy is offered, even as basic rights are casually dismissed in "first-world" countries like Singapore.

Don't miss Lei Yuan Bin's heartfelt triptych tribute to silent nation-builders and their shrouded life in this poignant documentary.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Award-winning filmmaker Lei Yuan Bin’s directorial debut, White Days, and his sophomore feature film, 03-Flats, were in the official selection of the Singapore International Film Festival in 2009 and 2014 respectively. His third feature film, Fundamentally Happy premiered at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. I Dream of Singapore is his fourth feature film.