Anthony Chen's portrait of a middle-class Singaporean family's struggle with financial, domestic and personal issues during the economic crisis of the late 90s picked up well-deserved awards for best debut feature at festivals in Cannes and London. Angeli Bayani excels as the Filipino maid/nanny whose presence becomes the focal point of tensions within the family. While the father, Teck (Tian Wen Chen), hides both his redundancy and his smoking from his pregnant wife Hwee (Yann Yann Yeo), troublesome son Jiale (Koh Jia Ler) finds growing solace in the presence of "auntie", a bond that threatens his increasingly frustrated mother.

Shot with extraordinary intimacy and naturalism, and boasting superbly unaffected performances from the core cast, this sympathetic and engaging drama is deceptively gentle in its insight – compassionate yet unsentimental.