Stone Turtle starts with Zahara, a stateless refugee who lives on a small outlying island of Malaysia and sells turtle eggs for a living. There she meets Samad, who claims to be a university researcher and that he would like to employ her to help him navigate around the island. The two are soon entangled in a cycle of deception, vengeance, and violence. This enigmatic film evokes Southeast Asian folkloric traditions while wrestling with social issues, the relationship between human and nature, the refugee situation in Malaysia, as well as notions of femicide.

This thriller received critical acclaim and premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival and was featured in the San Francisco International Film Festival, Golden Horse Film Festival, and more.

The screening on 21 September will be followed by a post-screening talk with filmmaker Woo Ming Jin in English.

Woo Ming Jin (b. 1976, Malaysia) is an award-winning director and producer. Woo’s films have been screened at film festivals worldwide including Cannes Film Festival. His best-known and awarded works include Woman on Fire Looks for Water (2009), The Tiger Factory (2010), and The Second Life of Thieves (2014). Woo is also the co-founder of Greenlight Pictures, a film production house based in Kuala Lumpur.