Singapore’s 13 Little Pictures and Emoumie Pictures has secured four international co-production partners for their mythological body horror Strange Fruit, including Indonesia’s Palari Films, Germany’s In Good Company, the Netherlands’ Sluizer Film Production and Archipelago: Binisaya from the Philippines.
Directed by Lam Li Shuen and Mark Chua, the film has been selected for the inaugural genre section of Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF). Set in 11th-century Singapore, the story revolves around a demigod born from a yam who is ritually fed upon by villagers. When a mysterious beast washes ashore, the villagers abandon him, and he is left with only a manipulative outcast by his side.
Co-producers on the film will include Palari Films’ Muhammad Zaidy and Meiske Taurisia, In Good Company’s Roshanak Behesht Nedjad, Sluizer Film Productions’ Anouk Sluizer and Archipelago: Binisaya’s Keith Deligero and Gale Osorio.
The project, which will be shot in a combination of 16mm and 35mm film, is produced by Looi Wan Ping and Tan Bee Thiam of 13 Little Pictures, whose credits include Before The Sea Forgets, which screened in Directors Fortnight 2025, and Netflix horror Revenge Of The Pontianak.
“Strange Root will be our most ambitious film to date. Constructing this body horror mythology, we want to pull audiences into a vicious tale of the cycles of power and violence that take root in our bodies, becoming a part of us,” said Lam and Chua, who premiered a sold-out cinema performance Born Of The Yam at this year’s Berlinale Forum Expanded.
“We are thrilled to be working with a team of experienced producers that understand the specific cultural textures we are exploring, to unearth this nightmare myth together.”
The Born Of The Yam performance involved modified 16mm projectors, immersing audiences in a techno-mythological ritual to the yam-born demigod. It forms part of a larger multi-IP strategy that includes installations, performances and video games, with the film set to be the anchor of the universe.
“Lam Li Shuen and Mark Chua are building a universe, not just a film. Our role as producers is to find partners who can match that scale of ambition without compromising the intimacy of their vision. In Palari, In Good Company, Sluizer, and Archipelago, we’ve found exactly that: storytellers who understand mythology, body horror, and expanded cinema can live together,” said producer Tan Bee Thiam.
The filmmaking team aims to lock financing by October 2026, begin pre-production in December, and shoot principal photography in Indonesia in May 2027. Following HAF, the project has been invited to pitch at the Critics’ Week Next Step Studio 2026 in Cannes.
