There is an idea at the heart of Sandiwara that, on paper, sounds almost like an impossible challenge: Michelle Yeoh acting alongside herself, multiplied into five distinct identities, all in dialogue with one another, across an eleven-minute short film shot entirely on a smartphone amid the smells and sounds of a Penang hawker centre. Yet in the hands of Sean Baker — the indie director who turned an iPhone 5S into poetry with Tangerine and went on to win five Oscars with Anora — this idea becomes not only possible, but deeply moving.
The film has been released in these days, following its world premiere at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, where Michelle Yeoh also received the Honorary Golden Bear, the festival’s highest lifetime achievement award — becoming the first Asian woman ever to receive the honour.
The title Baker chose is no accident: Sandiwara is a Malay and Indonesian word meaning “drama, theatrical performance, play.” And that is precisely what the film stages: Yeoh plays The Hawker, The Vlogger, The Waitress, The Critic and The Singer — five different women who cross paths and interact in a shared space, the chaotic and fragrant setting of a street food market. The result is a meditation on female identity, cultural heritage and the power of independent cinema, built around the food culture of Penang: Hainan Chicken Rice, Char Kway Teow, Loh Bak, Nasi Kandar, Penang Nasi Lemak. Dishes that are not merely backdrop, but characters in their own right — symbols of a rich, multicultural identity.
“Working on this film has been very moving for me. Working with Sean was like getting a master class in filming from a genius; I was learning by watching him and thinking ‘wow’. This is why we love cinema, why we love doing what we do, and why I will continue to support these incredible outlets of pure creativity.”
The project grew from a happy collision between seemingly distant worlds. Han Chong — founder and creative director of self-portrait, the London-based fashion house he established in 2013 — launched the Residency programme in 2024, an initiative that invites creatives from all disciplines to experiment within the brand with complete artistic freedom. Sandiwara is the first film produced under this initiative, and the choice of Baker as its author was far from arbitrary: the American filmmaker, independent to his core, embodies exactly that spirit of creative self-reliance that first inspired Chong to build his brand. Chong was also born in Penang — and it was he who suggested Baker tell the story of his hometown through Michelle Yeoh, herself Malaysian, born in Ipoh.
Baker and his producing partner Samantha Quan — also an Oscar winner for Anora — spent time in Penang before shooting began, allowing the screenplay to develop organically from their immersion in the city. A methodological choice entirely consistent with Baker’s broader creative philosophy, which has always privileged lived reality over constructed fiction. In the director’s vision, the city is not a backdrop: it is the sixth character in the film.
The decision to shoot on iPhone — a tool Baker already used for Tangerine more than a decade ago — is neither nostalgia nor provocation, but aesthetic necessity. Light, unobtrusive equipment capable of blending into the authentic flow of urban life without disrupting it. Cinematographer Christopher Ripley, known for his collaborations with Kendrick Lamar, Billie Eilish and Harry Styles, transformed this constraint into a distinctive visual quality — vibrant, almost documentary in its texture.
For further information Sandiwarafilm.com.
