SINGAPORE, Nov 3 — Small Hours of the Night by Singaporean director Daniel Hui, has been banned and removed from the lineup of the 35th Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF).
The festival remained mum on the docu-drama’s scheduled screening but its official website shows the film as not being available for screening.
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) had refused classification of the docu-drama, which means it cannot be screened in public or distributed — effectively meaning it has been banned.
“In consultation with the Ministry of Law and the Attorney-General’s Chambers, IMDA has assessed the film to have content that is potentially contrary to the law, (in essence) illegal. It would be likely to be prejudicial to national interests to approve it for screening.”
Small Hours of the Night draws from the real-life 1980s prosecution of Tan Chu Boon over revolutionary inscriptions on the grave of his brother Tan Chay Wa, including a Chinese poem the communist wrote just before his execution.
Chay Wa, a senior official of the Malayan National Liberation Front, an arm of the Communist Party of Malaya – fled to Malaysia in 1976 as Singapore cracked down on communists and was arrested in 1979 and sentenced to death for possession of a pistol with seven rounds of ammunition.
He was hanged in 1983 and his body brought back to Singapore for burial, reported The Straits Times.
Chu Boon, who had arranged for his tombstone to be engraved, was jailed over the subversive headstone, found to have glorified the communist as a martyr. His one-year jail sentence was later reduced to a month on appeal.
Under Singapore’s Film Classification Guidelines, “any material that undermines or is likely to undermine public order, or is likely to be prejudicial to national interest” will be refused classification.
Hui expressed his disappointment at the decision of the authorities, reported Variety.
“As the director of this film, the irony does not escape me that a film about censorship is itself being censored. I am of course very disappointed that people all around the world can see this film, but not in Singapore.
“However, I remain hopeful that one day, we will have a discursive space in Singapore that is gracious and generous enough to include diverse voices and points of view.”
The film has been screened in the Netherlands, the United States, Taiwan, Britain, South Korea, Mexico and Portugal, among others, he added.
Hui will still participate in the festival as a panellist speaker, including at the popular forum Mildly Offensive, Sometimes Accurate on the highs and lows of local film-making.
