Given time to find his voice, an artist brings the Singapore Story to life
The Violinist shows how much a local film-maker has evolved and why the process requires patient support.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Director Ervin Han with co-director Raul Garcia on the red carpet for the gala premiere of The Violinist at the Capitol Theatre on Sept 3.
ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
Raphael Millet
I watched Ervin Han and Raul Garcia’s movie The Violinist on the first weekend of its commercial release in Singapore and it made me cry multiple times, although, admittedly, I cry rather easily at the movies.
What particularly caught my attention was its treatment of the Singapore Story, a subject to which I devoted a chapter in my book Singapore: A Cinematic Portrait (2026), where I examine how Singaporean film-makers have engaged with the national narrative. I was struck by how differently Han approaches that story here, compared with The Violin, the 16-minute short he completed a decade earlier. Both follow a musical instrument through Singapore’s history, but they differ, subtly yet significantly, in the Singapore Story they tell.