Anthony Chen nears completion on shoot of We Are All Stranger, the third film in his Singapore trilogy

Director Anthony Chen (left) and actor Koh Jia Ler on the set of We Are All Strangers, the third chapter of Chen's Growing Up trilogy of dramas. PHOTO: GIRAFFE PICTURES
SINGAPORE – Local director Anthony Chen has almost completed filming his latest movie We Are All Strangers, which began in Singapore at the end of March 2025 .
'We are in the last week of the film shoot and it's the longest I have embarked on,' the 41-year-old tells The Straits Times. 'It is set in contemporary Singapore as we have shot it entirely here.'
Chen's most recent movies, Drift (2023) and The Breaking Ice (2023), were shot in Greece and China respectively.
We Are All Strangers is the third chapter of his Growing Up trilogy of dramas. The first, Ilo Ilo (2013), starred Yeo Yann Yann and Koh Jia Ler in a story about a boy (Koh) and his relationship with his mother (Yeo) and the family's domestic helper (played by Filipino actress Angeli Bayani). It won the Camera d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, the first win by a Singapore feature film there .
The second film in the trilogy is Wet Season (2019), also starring Yeo and Koh, as teacher and student respectively, coping with difficulties in their family relationships. It earned six nominations at the 2019 Golden Horse Awards, with Yeo winning Best Leading Actress.
We Are All Strangers also stars Yeo and Koh, but Chen declines to reveal more about their characters or the film's plot.
'I won't comment on the story now and will let audiences discover it in due time. This third film in the trilogy has been brewing in my head for several years. Each of these films is deeply personal to me. 2025 is when we will finally put this third film into production. It will be exactly 12 years since Ilo Ilo, and we will have come full circle,' he says.
He expects the film to be released in 2026.
Chen, who lives in Hong Kong with his wife and seven-year-old son, says that making We Are All Strangers has been a 'tough and challenging ride' .
'I'm grateful to my entire team who believed and pushed on. It really takes a village to make a film. And it also takes a lot of goodwill and kindness that we received along the way to make the impossible possible. We were helped by strangers, from all walks of life.'
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