"Perhaps surprisingly given its status as an economic powerhouse, Singapore has never really registered on the world cinema scene. Only a handful of movies produced by the city-state have ever made it on to the major festival circuit, let alone to arthouse screens. But if Anthony Chen's Ilo Ilo is anything to go by, we could be seeing the start of a cinematic movement to rival the ones recently seen emerging in Taiwan and South Korea.
The winner of the coveted Cameěra d'Or — awarded to first-time feature directors — at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, Ilo Ilo is a semi-autobiographical story set at the height of the Asian financial crisis of 1997." (Little White Lies)
And from Flick Philosopher:
"The lovely, intimate Ilo Ilo — Singapore’s official submission to the 2014 Oscars in the Foreign Language category — is part intriguing peek into middle-class life in that city-state, something most viewers will be unfamiliar with either firsthand or onscreen, and part illustration of the frustrations and indignities of foreign domestic workers that appear to be universal wherever women leave their own homes to go work in someone else's."