4:30

A meditation on absence and longing, 4:30 is about a moment - and a young boy's attempt to cling to it, escaping his drab reality. Told entirely from the perspective of the boy, it concerns his relationship with a listless 30-something year-old tenant who is nursing a broken heart. Seemingly without supervision and longing for human contact, the boy tries all he can to make a connection through physical and metaphorical walls in that hour between night and day.

Filmmaker Royston Tan considers 4:30am to be the loneliest time - “too late to go to sleep yet, at the same time, too late to be awake.” As opposed to language, Tan capitalises on gesture and expression to convey the film's universal theme of loneliness. “Amidst a cityscape of high-rise blocks, anonymous apartments and underground garages, he (Tan) shows that loneliness is neither a question of age nor one's cultural background, and that there are ways of overcoming the much-maligned inhospitality of urban existence.” - Berlin Film Festival.

Director Royston Tan is a guest of the festival and will introduce the screening on Sunday 30 July, 7.05pm at Forum Theatre.

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D Royston Tan P Gary Goh, James Toh, Makota Ueda S Royston Tan, Liam Yeo WS Celluloid Dreams L Korean, Mandarin, English TD 35mm/2005/93mins

Royston Tan was born in Singapore in 1976. His films include 15 (MIFF 2004), Monkey Love (MIFF 2006, short), New York Girl (MIFF 2006) and Cut (MIFF 2006, short).