Karlovy Vary Winner ‘Pierce’ Fences with Family Ties at Busan Festival

Singapore-born filmmaker Nelicia Low’s feature debut “Pierce” is making waves on the festival circuit, securing the best director award at Karlovy Vary and earning a spot at the Busan International Film Festival. The film draws deeply from Low’s personal experiences as both a former national fencer and sister to an autistic sibling.

“Pierce” follows Zijie, a young fencer who reconnects with his estranged older brother Zihan after Han’s release from seven years in juvenile prison for killing an opponent during a fencing competition. Believing Han’s claims of innocence, Zijie defies his mother’s attempts to erase Zihan from their lives and decides to help him. As Zihan trains Zijie for the national championships, their relationship deepens. However, an argument triggers Zihan’s hostile past, leaving Zijie questioning whether his brother might actually be a violent sociopath.

Low’s journey to crafting “Pierce” began with a violent crime that occurred on the Taipei subway, where a young man’s actions shocked the community. What struck Low, however, wasn’t just the act itself, but the aftermath. “While his parents went onto the streets of Taipei to publicly apologize and begged the government to execute their son, his younger brother visited him at the police station, crying, in denial that his older brother could do something so monstrous.”

This incident sparked a period of introspection for Low, leading her to examine her own familial relationships. “His younger brother’s reaction made me wonder about my relationship with my older brother,” she explains. “When I was young, I used to idealize him to be a loving, caring older brother, but as I grew up, I realized that our entire relationship was made up in my head, as he is actually autistic.”

Low’s personal journey became the emotional backbone of “Pierce.” “Accepting that I would never know if my brother actually reciprocated my love has been a painful journey for me, and is the same one the lead character Zijie takes in ‘Pierce,’” she says.

The director’s background in competitive fencing provided another layer. “I later added the theme of fencing to the story because of the character of Zihan, Zijie’s older brother, who was hyper-intelligent, enigmatic and manipulative,” Low explains. “I used to be a national fencer for Singapore, so I know the sport very well. Fencing is very much like chess played with swords, all about strategy and predicting each other’s moves.”

This strategic element of fencing serves as a metaphor for the psychological interplay between the brothers in the film. “This also reflects Zijie’s experience when he is trying to guess what his brother’s true intentions and motives are, if his brother is actually a sociopath, and if his brother truly cares for him,” Low says.

At its core, “Pierce” grapples with profound questions about the nature of love and perception. Low articulates the central theme: “Pierce asks one essential question – What happens when you project your feelings onto those who you love, only to realize it may all be just an illusion?”

The film’s success at Karlovy Vary and its Busan selection have been validating for Low. But she finds the most satisfaction in audience reactions. “The emotional win for me has been the reaction from the audience,” Low says. “Audience members came up to me or sent me messages on Instagram to tell me how much the film moved them and blew them away, and many of them mentioned that they called their sibling to tell them they loved them right after watching ‘Pierce.’”

Producer Jeremy Chua of Potocol was drawn to Low’s unique perspective from the outset. “I’m always looking out for a director with unique life experiences who can adapt those subliminal moments to cinema,” Chua says. “When Nelicia first introduced us to this story, she described in vivid detail what it takes to win a fencing match. She used evocative imagery to illustrate the killer instinct – explosive yet agile bursts of physical aggression coupled with the psychological mind games employed to trick your opponent.”

Chua was particularly impressed by Low’s vision for translating these elements to film. “She explained how she wanted to meld these intense elements of competitive sports into direction, cinematography and editing,” he recalls. “Immediately I was drawn to her distinct approach to tackling the dualities of love and war, violence and vulnerability, in a way that only she could as a former national fencer.”

Producer, Sam Chua Weishi adds, “When I first met Nelicia to talk about ‘Pierce,’ we spoke about our desire and ambition to produce a film that would not only tug at our heartstrings but challenge the way in which we understand the world around us. After watching her work in her short film ‘Freeze’ (2014), I was convinced that Nelicia brings out the best in her actors and her creative collaborators to deliver an emotionally-charged, visual-aural spectacle.”

The production of “Pierce” also presented an opportunity for international collaboration. “‘Pierce’ also offered an interesting opportunity to explore a new co-production structure between Singapore-Taiwan-Poland,” Weishi says.

Following the success of “Pierce,” Low is already at work on her next project. “I am currently working on my next film, ‘Duet,’ that is set in San Francisco in the early 2000s,” she reveals. “Like ‘Pierce,’ ‘Duet’ is also highly autobiographical in its emotional core. It is a comedic-melodrama in English and Cantonese, about a successful Cantonese opera actress in her late 40s whose career is in jeopardy when a fresh young actress threatens to steal away her long-term stage partner, an older charismatic cross-dressing actress who plays male roles.”

Meanwhile, Chua is involved in several projects, including The Maw Naing’s film “Ma: The Cry of Silence,” which in the New Currents Competition at Busan, Natesh Hegde’s Busan APM project “Tiger’s Pond,” which is in the final stages of post production and Rafael Manuel’s “Filipinana,” which won prizes at APM last year.

Weishi is collaborating with emerging Singaporean directors on their debut features, including coming-of-age drama “Midnight Blue Spring” by Giselle Lin, and dramedy “Build-to-Order” (working title) by Huang Junxiang.