Each frame of The Violinist is a heartfelt and poster-perfect time capsule of a Singapore that was vulnerable yet tenacious.
Set in and around the Second World War, the hand-drawn animated feature with a runtime of 114 minutes took over 10 years to produce.
And all that time truly paid off as archival footage alone could not have poignantly depicted the wrinkles on a character’s war-weary face or the interior design of a lived-in Pernakan home down to the porcelain tiled floors and shuttered wooden windows.
It is clear that every detail and direction was painted with the stories and recollections of those who lived through that time period. Namely our grandparents and great-grandparents.
For most of my childhood, I shared my bedroom with my late grandmother or Aatha as I used to call her. Every night, she would tell the tales of hiding from enemy soldiers and eating rationed tapioca during the Japanese Occupation.
However, one visceral scene from the film reminded me of her most recounted anecdote about the time the bombs dropped.
“When you hear the deep roar and see the ground shake from the tremor after a bomb has dropped, you will feel both fear and relief,” my grandmother told me.
“Why?” I asked, deeply invested in her response each time.
“Relief, because you are still alive, and fear, because you could be next,” she said in Tamil.
The film conveyed the same sense of stillness during the scene where the warplanes dropped the bombs over a Singapore that did not expect it – and could not fight back even if she tried.
Instead of inundating the images with loud sound effects, the score relies fully on the violin to musically express the horror that has just unfolded before our tear-filled eyes.
Overnight, children became orphans and spouses became widows. For an animated film with an almost poetic aesthetic, it does not shy away from the ugliness that war engenders.
It is no surprise that The Violinist received the Cristal for Feature Film award, the highest honour at the Annecy International Film Festival 2026, which was held in France.
“For me, it also affirms that stories rooted in Singapore and our region can connect with audiences far beyond us, without losing what makes them our own,” said the film’s executive producer Justin Deimen.
The Violinist also had its Singapore gala premiere at the Capitol Theatre on Sept 3, and is available to screen in local cinemas like Golden Village from Sept 17.
“Sharing the film with a Singapore audience was what mattered most. It carries a history that belongs to so many of our families, and I hope people would recognise something of their parents, grandparents or themselves in it,” Mr Justin added.
