The rainforest-filled Singapore Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai launched the first of its monthly film nights on Tuesday, 12 October with award-winning feature Not My Mother’s Baking, directed by Remi M Sali, and acclaimed short film Adam, directed by Shoki Lin.
Not My Mother’s Baking plots an unlikely romance between the daughter of a Malay Muslim family and the son of a Taoist Chinese family that runs a popular roast meat hawker stall. Staring father-and-son acting duo Zack and Benjamin Zainal, the film uses comedy to expose the ignorance and cultural insensitivities that are often swept under the carpet in Singapore.
Since its premiere at the Singapore International Film Festival in 2020, the film has won the Religions Through Women’s Eyes Award at the 24th Religion Today Film Festival in Italy.
Zack Zainal said it would be some time before Singapore could hope to emulate the success of South Korea’s film industry, but the country was moving in the right direction.