Muhammad Harminder Singh

2024 marks a century since the opening of the Causeway, the iconic bridge that seamlessly connects Singapore and Malaysia, shaping the lives and histories of both countries. These are the untold stories of characters from different periods – from the early 1920s with Hedwig Anuar as her family fled Johor during World War II, to the men who witnessed the British blowing up the Causeway and its eventual reconstruction. How the change in the passport was a turning point, and more recently, the COVID-19 border shutdown that saw an enterprising man deliver 64,000kg of breastmilk across the Causeway for more than 500 working mothers in Singapore.

Set in Singapore in 1979, A Year Of No Significance chronicles the gradual disintegration of a middle-aged architect as changes rock the 45th year of his life. Sidelined in the office because of his inability to speak English, Lim Cheng Soon is cut further adrift when his wife leaves him inexplicably one day. His elderly father moves in, forcing him to confront the fact that the former has always preferred his younger brother. Robbed of his identities as architect, husband and son, Cheng Soon struggles in the dusk of his life, raging against the dying light.

In WWII-era colonial Singapore, a wealthy British family struggle to preserve their prosperous business – whether by commercial or amorous schemes – amid cataclysmic world events.