Tomorrow evening, film-maker Ken Kwek’s Unlucky Plaza will officially be the first local film to open the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) in its 25-year history.

This comes on the back of the movie’s successful world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, which played to sold-out screenings.

Two lucky breaks for one Unlucky Plaza? More like taking chances and having tenacity and perseverance, which is pretty much what Kwek’s rocky road to achievement is usually paved with.

The Singaporean director told TODAY he was especially proud to be selected for Toronto, not only because it’s a big festival, but also because it took a chance on him.

“Toronto was especially nice because we submitted a work-in-progress,” said the man who gave us Sex.Violence.FamilyValues, adding that the festival picked up the film without seeing the final product. “I am glad they could see what the film could actually become. They picked us cold, as opposed to through connections from a producer or past experiences. Of course, I hope from here on, I will have easier access to programmers. But that was nice: To apply cold and to be picked up cold.”

The film, playfully named after the famous Orchard Road mall, tells the story of Onassis (Epy Quizon), a Filipino single father who is struggling with a failing business, rising rents and a bureaucratic civil service. Just when things start to look up, he is cheated of all his savings. Onassis decides he has had enough and resolves to do something about it. The film examines the contradictions of Singapore society — becoming more open and yet more intolerant; richer and yet, in some ways, poorer.

Kwek said Unlucky Plaza isn’t the usual type of film that suits arthouse film festivals such as Toronto’s, so he was emboldened by the audience reaction.

“The fact that it was greeted with great excitement and pleasure — we love the Canadian audience!” he said with a laugh. “After the first screening, we sold out. I think word of mouth was very positive, so we sold out all our screenings.”

Kwek said some pressure was inevitable because his previous film, Sex.Violence.FamilyValues, was initially banned, but he’s taking it in his stride. “I don’t enjoy the constant reference to my first film, especially when it comes up in interviews, but maybe it’s also the nature of the game,” he said. “All I care about is getting the actors to hit those emotional peaks and making sure the camera choreography works. All that takes far too much time already,” he said with a smile.

Kwek also said that while he’s grateful for the script development grant of S$20,000 from the Media Development Authority, he was initially disappointed at being turned down for its New Talent Feature Grant. In the end, Kwek found supportive investors who made up the sum.

Interestingly, when it came to Unlucky Plaza, the film-maker simply just ... made it. “Strictly speaking, we weren’t sure and didn’t overthink (what the film was going to be),” said Kwek. “I told myself, ‘Just make the movie. Don’t have too many calculations about audience, box office, etc. ’”

Does such an optimistic response at a big-name film festival support the usual murmurs that a Singaporean film must make it big abroad before local audiences will accept it?

“I think a lot of film-makers like myself have grown up with this almost debilitating idea beaten into us that only Jack Neo can thrive at the box office. And if you don’t make his kind of films, you won’t,” Kwek shared. “It’s a very punishing mindset to be saddled with, not because it signals financial failure, but because it suggests that you’re creating a work that is somehow less regarded in your home country. At some level, I think maybe that’s a myth that has been foisted on an entire generation of film-makers, including my contemporaries such as (Boo) Junfeng and Anthony (Chen).”

He continued: “We don’t make the same kind of films, but all of us are saddled with this idea that we are not going to succeed at the box office here, so we better try our luck elsewhere and hope the success elsewhere will translate into a little bit of recognition back home. It’s a very strange and sad state of affairs.”

All that said, the 35-year-old film-maker understands it’s about changing mindsets and is determined to look at the proverbial glass being half-full.

“When people ask me how I feel about my debut feature film opening the SGIFF, it’s an obvious one line answer to the question: Of course I’m proud and happy,” he said. “But the underlying issue and the reason I think SGIFF has been rebooted by (festival executive director) Yuni (Hadi) and (festival director Zhang) Wenjie is that I think they are trying to undo that mindset: That unless you make a certain type of film, you won’t be recognised (in Singapore) or do well.”

He added: “You can’t forge a definition of success based on prizes, because if you did, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. Realistically, even if you made a fantastic film, there is no guarantee you’re going to make it to a big festival. Hopefully you do —but I think just making it into a festival is a good start and you’ve got to move on from there.”