Ilo Ilo

Singapore, 1997. A middle class family takes on a live in helper. Teresa comes from the Philippines to look after their son Jiale. The boy is ten, causes constant trouble at school and does not accept the new woman at once. The mother is pregnant and spends her days typing redundancy letters at work. The father loses his job and does not say so at home; every morning he goes out and looks for work. Teresa takes a second job at night and sends the money home. Things between her and the boy slowly settle. The family begins coming apart at exactly that point. Anthony Chen writes and directs. Angeli Bayani, Yeo Yann Yann and Koh Jia Ler are in the cast. It is a Singaporean production. The film won the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, cited as the first major Cannes prize for Singaporean cinema. Its ground is the Asian financial crisis; the crisis appears not as news but as unpaid bills inside the house and unemployment kept secret. The story rests on the director's childhood; a helper worked with his family, and the film's title comes from where she was from. The narrative blames no character; the mother, the father and Teresa are all under pressure. The child actor's performance is the axis and the character is not shown as likeable. Its limit is scale; the narrative is small and it would be wrong to wait for a large event. Who it is for: viewers who like family drama and Asian independent cinema. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, there is little event, and the ending is left open.