A lingerie shop upsets men in Teater Ekamatra’s La Luna, adapted from Singapore’s Oscar entry

Teater Ekamatra stages it at the Esplanade from April 16 to 19. Read more at straitstimes.com.

SINGAPORE – La Luna, Singapore’s 2025 entry for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars, has been adapted for the Esplanade stage.

Urban interloper Hanie will once more open a lingerie shop to upend the fragile peace of a repressed village, incurring the wrath of village chief Tok Hassan.

Malay theatre company Teater Ekamatra stages this Esplanade commission for Pesta Raya – Malay Festival of Arts from April 16 to 19, headlined by show-business regular Munah Bagharib as wrecking ball Hanie, who inadvertently kick-starts a culture war.

The Malay dramedy, now on Netflix, was a Singapore-Malaysia co-production directed by Singaporean film-maker M. Raihan Halim. Its quiet reception here upon its release in 2023 was in contrast to criticism across the Causeway from conservative Malays upset over its portrayal of Islam and sex.

By general standards, however, it is an innocuous and not at all sordid Malay kampung tale and a rather sweet story of the importance of female spaces.

Munah – who watched the film two to three years ago on the recommendation of fellow cast member Siti Khalijah Zainal – was immediately attracted to the work for its evergreen topic. “A lot of the themes that were brought up are still very relevant and maybe even more difficult to talk about now. Comedy is the best way to ease into a difficult conversation.”