Director Amanda Nell Eu has entered the ring of teen-girl body horror with Tiger Stripes, following in the footsteps of masters Ducournau, Cronenberg, and De Palma. Ensconced in a Malaysian school for girls, rebellious 12-year-old Zaffan’s body starts to change before everyone else’s. But these changes are far from normal. She is growing aggressive as her body seems to be attacking itself and ostracizing her from her friends. Given the total lack of education around her physical development, these changes begin to scare her as she becomes convinced that she is evolving into a horrific and dangerous monster.
Featuring “a tremendous young cast” (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian), the film uses the classic monster fable to present an original, modern coming-of-age story about the trials of girlhood and the universal fear of the unknown. Winner of the prestigious Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prix for her directorial debut, Amanda Nell Eu is a genuinely exciting prospect.
Grand Prix, Critics’ Week, Cannes 2023
“Tiger Stripes follows a line from Carrie to Ginger Snaps, but it has its own story to tell… Interested arthouse crowds will find much that is surprisingly universal and true in this well-observed, fiercely female-centred coming-of-age drama.”
Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International
Series Media Partner
Zafreen Zairizal, Deena Ezral, Piqa, Shaheizy Sam, Jun Lojong
Malaysia/Taiwan/France/Germany/
The Netherlands/Indonesia/Qatar
2023
Altered States
In Malay with English subtitles
Violence
At International Village
At The Rio
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Producer
Foo Fei Ling, Mao Huang, Fran Borgia,Juliette Lepoutre, Pierre Menahem, Jonas Weydemann, Ellen Havenith, Yulia Evina Bhara
Screenwriter
Amanda Nell Eu
Cinematography
Jimmy Gimferrer
Editor
Carlo Francisco Manatad
Production Design
Sharon Chin
Original Music
Gabber Modus Operandi
Director
Amanda Nell Eu
Amanda Nell Eu’s short film It’s Easier to Raise Cattle premiered in competition at the Venice International Film Festival and received a Special Mention at the International Short Film Festival Clermont-Ferrand. In her work, she explores the female body and identity within the cultural context of Southeast Asia. Tiger Stripes is her debut feature film and presented at the Critic’s Week 2023 in Cannes, the film obtained the Grand Prize.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Art of Adventure
The unbelievable adventure story of how painter Robert Bateman and ecologist Bristol Foster drove a Land Rover from Africa to Australia in 1957, developing a love of nature to last a lifetime. An inspirational love letter to the adventure of life itself.
Chasing Ice
This visually stunning film follows renowned National Geographic photographer James Balog on a harsh Arctic expedition where he captures a multi-year record of the world's changing glaciers — undeniable evidence that our planet is in crisis. The screening will be introduced by James Balog.
Dead Lover
A foul-smelling gravedigger's romance ends in tragedy, spurring her to attempt a resurrection through a madcap series of science experiments. Grace Glowicki and Ben Petrie’s film is a zany DIY horror that zaps fresh life into Mary Shelley's classic.
Calle Málaga
Seventy-nine-year-old María Ángeles lives independently in Tangier's Spanish quarter. When her daughter pressures her into selling her apartment, she refuses to give in, finding in her old age a new resilience and an unexpected romantic connection.
Sansho the Bailiff
The third of the great Japanese masters (with Ozu and Kurosawa), Mizoguchi is a poet of suffering. There's plenty of that here in his exquisite telling of an ancient folktale about the enslavement of a woman and her two children.

