Friday Foreign Film, May 8

The “Friday Foreign Film” series at Coos Bay Public Library continues at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, May 8th. The 2013 winner of Cannes’ prestigious Camera d’Or for best debut feature “Ilo Ilo” (Singapore, 2013) is this month’s feature. Living in Singapore, the Lims are a middle class family with dad, Teck, trying to hold onto his job during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, while heavily pregnant mom, Hwee Leng works at a shipping firm that is laying people off at a steady pace. Lost in this struggle as they try to make ends meet, is their nine-year-old son, Jiale, a bratty, hard to control, little troublemaker. The Lims hire Terry, a Filipino maid as a live-in maid and nanny. Like many other Filipino women, she came to this city in search of a better life. Now is she in a new country where her language and Catholic religion differ from those around her. At first, a resentful Jiale is angry that he has to share a room with the maid, treating Terry as the hated enemy and tricking her into a series of uncomfortable, even humiliating situations. In the absence of his overworked parents, Terry is the only adult who has time for Jiale and the two of them are thrown together more and more. In tenderly played scenes, she slowly wins over the misunderstood boy, to the envy of his pregnant mother. Meanwhile, the family’s financial situation worsens and unforeseen circumstances in an uncertain economy will challenge the new normal yet again. The “Friday Foreign Film” series, sponsored by the Friends of Coos Bay Public Library, is normally held on the second Friday of the month and is free to the public. Many of these films are not rated and parental discretion is advised. For more information call 269-1101.