Be with Me

At the centre of the film is Theresa Chan: a Singaporean woman who is both blind and deaf. She plays herself and what she tells is her own life; she writes about losing her senses as a young woman, then becoming a teacher and getting married. Three fictional stories are woven around her. An old shopkeeper goes on cooking for his dead wife. Two schoolgirls become attached to each other. A heavy-set security guard cannot find the courage to approach a woman who works in his building. Eric Khoo's film moves almost without speech; there is very little dialogue, and communication is built through writing, touch and text messages. The four stories are joined not by plot but by the same feeling: not being able to reach somebody. Chan's sections are shot like a documentary, and standing next to the others they blur the line between fiction and the real. Ninety-three minutes. The film screened at Cannes in 2005 and became one of the most talked-about works of Singaporean cinema abroad.