Russell Morton
Director
Sophia Sim, Jeremy Chua
Producers
Singapore
Country
Logline

A man on the run washes up on a floating fish farm with no means of escape. He is discovered by its mysterious occupants - an old man and his dog.

Caught between land and sea, freedom and imprisonment, dreams and monsters, he must now confront the sins of his past.

Short Synopsis

Two inmates escape a brutal riot on an island prison by plunging into the sea. Only one survives. Raj—a tall, lanky Indian man—washes ashore on a weathered fish farm drifting alone in open water. Exhausted, guilt-ridden, and disoriented, he’s taken in by a strange old man named Awang and his beast-like black dog, Malam. There are no boats. No land in sight. Just a kelong suspended in the endless tide—a limbo between freedom and punishment. At night, visions from the riot haunt him. Pendek, his best friend from the prison, returns in fever dreams—drenched in blood, still singing—each dream staged like a Bangsawan performance.
In a climactic storm of lightning and chant, Raj is pulled back to the riot—not as dream, but as truth revealed. He sees Pendek calling for help. This time, we see what truly happened: Raj ran. He left Pendek behind to die. And when guilt overtook him and he tried to turn back—the tide was too strong. The sea claimed him.

Russell Morton
Russell Morton

Russell Morton is a Singaporean filmmaker and cinematographer whose work mobilises Southeast Asian folkloric figures and esoteric rituals, enmeshing mythological narratives with existentialist concerns. Some of the festivals his short films have traveled to are Fantasia, Sheffield Doc Fest, MOTEL/X, Singapore International Film Festival, Raindance, Aesthetica. After graduating in Fine Arts from the University of the Arts London, Morton returned to Singapore to train under artist and filmmaker Ho Tzu Nyen. In 2022, he received the Most Outstanding Southeast Asian Director award at the Rolling Youth Film Festival, in conjunction with the Busan International Film Festival. As a cinematographer, Morton has worked with leading regional companies such as Pōtocol, Akanga, Epicmedia, and Volos Films. His credits include Recorder Rewrite (Singapore’s entry to the 58th Venice Biennale), In My Mother’s Skin(Sundance 2023), Tomorrow Is A Long Time (Berlinale 2023), and Some Nights I Feel Like Walking (Tallinn Black Nights 2024). Morton is currently developing his first feature film, Penumbra (2026)—a metaphysical horror rooted in Malay folklore and carceral mythologies. The project has been nurtured through several international development platforms including the SEA Film Lab (31st Singapore International Film Festival, 2020), the NTU Centre for Contemporary Arts Artist Residency (2021), Berlinale Tokyo Talents (2021), Focus Asia (2023) and Full Circle Lab Philippines (2022). Penumbra was also awarded the Autumn Meeting Arthouse Project Prize in 2022.

Sophia Sim
Sophia Sim

Sophia Sim is an independent film producer from Singapore. Her first foray into the filmmaking industry was on A Land Imagined by Yeo Siew Hua (Golden Leopard Locarno, 2018). Working with Jeremy Chua, she co produced Nicole Midori Woodford’s debut feature, Last Shadow at First Light (San Sebastián Film Festival 2023). She also produced, alongside Tan Si En, Nelson Yeo’s debut feature, Dreaming and Dying (2023) which won the Locarno Film Festival Cineasti del Presente Golden Leopard Award and Swatch First Feature Award. Aside from narrative works, Sophia has also produced for artists such as Kent Chan on Heat Waves: Future Tropics (Gasworks UK, 2023) and Cécile B. Evans' Reality or Not: Render of Collectives (Lafayette Anticipations, Singapore Art Museum, 2023). In 2024, she produced artist Charmaine Poh’s What's softest in the world rushes and runs over what's hardest in the world., a Venice Biennale commission. At the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2024, she was selected for the Rotterdam Producers Lab, her next feature film, Daniel Hui’s Other People’s Dreams, was selected in the film market, CineMart, and their feature film, Small Hours of the Night, had its world premiere.