The Violinist – Screening

When a curious journalist begins asking questions about the violin belonging to one of Singapore’s most acclaimed soloists, the answers lead back to two kids in the 1930s. Young, gifted, and absorbed by music, Fei and Kai recognise something in each other — and the violin gives them a world of their own. Then war arrives at their doorstep. Against a backdrop of upheaval and change, a single instrument becomes a thread through the years — holding Fei and Kai’s story as their lives are pulled apart.

Singapore’s first animated feature in close to 15 years, The Violinist was more than a decade in the making. It became the first Singapore-produced feature to compete in Annecy’s official competition — and took home the 2026 Cristal. Co-directed by Ervin Han and Spain’s Raúl García, the hand-drawn animation takes us to an extraordinary range of places and eras, from 19th-century streets to the jungle and the concert rooms of Southeast Asia. Running through it all is a score with Mendelssohn, Paganini, and Massenet, alongside Kai’s unfinished Sonata of the Setting Sun in D Major. Sometimes intimate, sometimes vast, ever present.

Offering a perspective on a chapter of history more often told from elsewhere, The Violinist puts music at the heart of a story about what survives when so much else is lost.