Award-winning Singapore road movie ‘Shirkers’ will be streaming on Netflix this year

Critically-acclaimed road movie Shirkers — a personal documentary 25 years in the making by Singapore-born filmmaker Sandi Tan — will soon get the wide release it deserves.

Following Tan’s win for the Best Director in World Cinema Documentary at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, streaming giant Netflix has acquired worldwide rights to the film.

“I’ve always dreamed of sharing my stranger-than-fiction film Shirkers with the widest audience possible, so am thrilled for Netflix to help tell this story to new generations of iconoclastic, creative people around the world,” Tan enthused about the news.

“I hope the true story of my youthful misadventures will inspire people to turn their crazy dreams into reality,” said Tan.

Stranger-than-fiction indeed, Shirkers is. It’s a ‘90s retrospect; it’s an uncompleted indie film; it’s a road movie; it’s a noir crime story; it’s a love letter to the old days of Singapore; it’s a documentary, it’s a coming-of-age tale.

In 1992, Tan and her two friends Jasmine Ng and Sophie Siddique made a lo-fi thriller called Shirkers — but right when it was about to enter post-production, their American film mentor and collaborator Georges vanished with all 70 cans of footage. The filmmaking trio parted ways to various countries after their friendship dissolved in the aftermath.

Twenty years later, the footage mysteriously resurfaced. The rediscovery sent Tan — now a Los Angeles-based novelist — into an international journey to reconnect with her lost collaborators. It’s one that explores the concepts of youth, friendship, adulthood, and the art of indie filmmaking in the nostalgic backdrop of ‘90s Singapore.

Shirkers received warm critical acclaim when it was screened at the iconic Egyptian Theatre in Utah back in January, and currently holds a 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. With Netflix having acquired the film, it’ll get a confirmed global launch later this year. But the actual release date has yet to be announced, so stay updated on Netflix Singapore’s Facebook page.