Experience a coming together of film, laser display and live musical performance in The Once and Future, as award-winning director Yeo Siew Hua’s cinematic exploration of voyages is brought to life by live music from members of the Berliner Philharmoniker, librettist Anandi Bhattacharya and a mesmerising choreography of lights and lasers.

“In terms of a sensorial experience it goes well beyond the boundaries of what you'll normally experience in cinema.” – Stanley Dodds

Set in the Esplanade Theatre, The Once and Future opens to a new work of speculative fiction by acclaimed Singaporean filmmaker Yeo Siew Hua. Shot entirely in Argentina during the pandemic, Yeo’s film is a searching exploration of our humanity, the future of our Earth, and the voyages we may have to make.

Breathing life to the film is an arresting musical score of original compositions by leading contemporary composer Eugene Birman, described as a composer of “high drama” and “intense emotion” (BBC). Eugene’s music will be performed live by the ZeMu! Ensemble Berlin, the latest ensemble coming out of the world renowned Berliner Philharmoniker and conducted by the esteemed Stanley Dodds, which will make their premiere at The Once and Future.

Joining the orchestra is acclaimed Indian librettist and vocal soloist Anandi Bhattacharya, celebrated for her ‘golden voice’ and prowess in classical Indian music alongside world music and pop. She will play the Artificial Intelligence in The Once and Future, guiding the audience through song on this sensorial journey. Complementing the filmic and live performance is an intricate dance of lasers, choreographed to the majestic orchestral soundscape.

Journeying from monumental landscapes to intimate everyday moments, The Once and Future is a daring cinematic experience about the borders of land, body and love, to discover what separates and binds us, and ultimately, what makes us truly human.

Co-commissioned by the New Vision Arts Festival, Hong Kong

Learn more about THE ONCE AND FUTURE

Life Profusion: +Read: Imagining the future. 

Writer, editor and producer Hong Xinyi explores works in the festival that imagines a future entwined with a fascination of the fate of human corporealities within ailing landscapes. As virtual realities and faraway places take centrestage in the human story, what do we do with the vivid vulnerabilities of flesh and home?