Best Actress Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh stars in a new short film called Sandiwara from Anora writer and director Sean Baker.
Legendary Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh shows no signs of stopping. She nabbed a Best Actress Oscar in 2022 for Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, making her the first Asian to win in the category and first Malaysian to win an Oscar. However, if her new short film with American Sean Baker is any indication, she is far from done. Michelle Yeoh stars in the short film Sandiwara, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, which not only features Yeoh in five roles but also highlights Malaysian culture.
Sandiwara Features Michelle Yeoh Playing Five Characters in a Malaysian Night Market
Directed by Sean Baker—who also directed, wrote, and produced Best Picture winner Anora—Sandiwara is set in a Malaysian night market. The film follows five characters, all of which are played by Yeoh: the Singer, the Vlogger, the Hawker, the Waitress, and the Critic. Each of the characters represents something about Malaysian culture.
The short film was shot on location in Penang. When Baker visited the Malaysian state, he found himself changing the initial script of the film, which was a caper-style movie with Yeoh running away from gangsters. Baker said in an interview with Variety that after spending time in Penang, “It was immediately apparent that this is one of the major foodie destinations in the world.”
The movie is also made in partnership with Self-Portrait, a fashion house whose founder, Han Chong, actually grew up in Penang. “I didn’t want to restrict [Michelle and Sean] with a fashion film,” Chong said. “The whole idea is tell a story of my hometown — the culture, the emotion.”
Another fascinating thing about the film is that it was shot entirely on iPhone through “guerrilla filmmaking”, with people in the background being real people and not background actors. Baker recalls that during filming, a lot of people were doing double takes to see whether it was actually Michelle Yeoh that they just saw.
Watch Sandiwara on YouTube below:
(Hero and feature image: Self-Portrait)
This story first appeared here.
Note : The information in this article is accurate as of the date of publication.
