SINGAPORE — Just eight days before Ms Eunice Lau’s film about a Somalian-American family’s struggle with radicalisation is set to be shown for the first time in Singapore, she got a piece of news she had been waiting for for months: It has been approved for screening by the authorities here.

As a result, the Singaporean filmmaker has had to play catch-up in promoting the film — rated M18 — and selling tickets, she told TODAY in an interview on Sunday (Nov 24).

The film, Accept the Call, revolves around Somalian-born Yusuf Abdurahman, whose eldest child Zacharia was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for planning to fly to the Middle East to join the terrorist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis).

Yusuf tries to understand how his son, just 19 years old when he was nabbed and who is now serving 10 years in prison, became radicalised. Through the three years it took to make the documentary, the pair attempt to mend their relationship as well.

Speaking to TODAY at the Oldham Theatre where the film will be screened on Wednesday evening, Ms Lau said that she wanted it to be shown here as it is ultimately “a father-and-son story that can happen to any of us”.

While it might not speak to Singaporeans on the surface, the 43-year-old filmmaker now based in New York believes that its message resonates with people in the region — that radicalisation is a problem and bigotry is “something that every country is guilty of”.

Having grown up interested in stories concerning migration and immigrants, Ms Lau found herself relating to the Somalian-American community’s identity struggle.

The film has made its rounds in two film festivals in the United States and will make its Asian premiere at the 30th Singapore International Film Festival, which began last Thursday (Nov 21).

Ms Lau had applied to the festival organisers in early July, before being accepted in early September. From then on, she said the organisers told her that they might not get a decision on whether the Board of Film Censors would pass it until “days before the screening, from past experience”.

“When I got the news that we might not ever be able to screen it, I just got kind of pessimistic and I said, ‘Maybe it won’t even happen’,” she said.

Tickets for the festival went on sale a month ago, but her film remained unavailable on the festival website due to this. Ms Lau said that some of her friends could not buy tickets as a result.

She does not know what the official reason for the delay was.

TODAY has sent queries to the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) on this.

Nevertheless, tickets to the single screening of Accept the Call — priced at S$13 each — were made available around Friday, and a limited number of seats are left.

Meanwhile, the wider public in America will be able to catch the film on Jan 20 next year when it premieres on public television broadcaster PBS.

It is special to Ms Lau for two reasons: First, it’s Martin Luther King Jr Day, when people remember the civil rights leader’s push for the end of racial segregation.

Secondly, Zacharia will be able to watch it for the first time as only PBS is available in prison.

CORRECTION NOTE: In an earlier version of the story, we reported that the film had not been rated yet. IMDA has clarified that it was rated M18 last Thursday (Nov 21).