Director	:		Ho Tzun Nyen
Special Features	:		NA
Language	:		English and Malay with English subtitles
Run Time	:		23 minutes
Format	:		Colour, Subtitled
Encoding	:		PAL, Region 3
DVD Release Date	:		December 2007
Rating	:		PG

“[A piece of] complex work that ... measures the historical weight of images and technologies of representation, rather than simply dissolving them in the stream of digitisation.� - Lee Weng Choy, art critic

“[Utama] deliberates on issues of founding, origin and aesthetics.� - for Asian Art News, Michael Lee, writer and curator

:: Official Selection, Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale :: In Competition, Bangkok International Film Festival ::


Official accounts of Singapore’s history record that the island state was founded in 1819 by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, as part of the British colonial empire. Little is known, however, about the other pre-colonial founder, known as Sang Nila Utama or the first ‘king’ of the Malays, who coined the name Singapura (or Lion City) between the 13th and 14th century when he encountered a lion along its shores. This account has been often questioned as lions are not native to the region.

A genre-blending mixture of fiction and documentary, filmic tableaus, philosophical meditation and political allegory, mythical fantasy, costume parade dramatic enactments and film essay, this film sets into motion an inquiry into a subterranean network of issues related to myths, history, origins and pow