However, the 37-year-old said on Facebook today that she does not “stand behind the cut” of the screening.
“While I am not here to attack the censorship board, I am here to state that the film that will be shown in local cinemas is not the film that we made, and it is not the film that won the Grand Prize of Critics Week in Cannes,” Eu said.
She pointed out that the movie had been made with Malaysians in mind.
“Tiger Stripes” is the first Malaysian and Southeast Asian film to snag the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week in May. Critics have compared it to “Raw”, a coming-of-age body-horror film by French director Julia Ducournau, which screened at Critics’ Week in 2016.
In “Tiger Stripes”, 12-year-old Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal) is the first of her friends to reach puberty. But she quickly realises she is transforming in horrifying ways, causing her to fear her own body. Her peers discover this unsettling development and turn against her.
“What has been censored from the film is the very joy of being a young girl in Malaysia. A young girl who is maybe different from the rest, misunderstood, or has the urge to express herself differently from others – a young girl who is innocent and curious about the world around her and fights for her existence in this world,” Eu wrote.
Explaining that her film is meant to resonate with people who often feel like they don’t quite fit in, she said it saddens her that “this type of girl has to be censored from public view”.
“Although we respect different opinions and sensitivities in our country, we wish that we had more freedom to discuss things openly and not quickly condemn and punish each other, or have to hide away from things that we are afraid of,” said Eu, who made history as the first female director from Malaysia to be invited to Cannes.
She continued that “being dictated on what we can or cannot show and limiting artistic voices in Malaysia is detrimental to our society”, and believes the Malaysian audience “has the maturity to make decisions based on their own critical choices”.
“Tiger Stripes” will represent Malaysia in the 96th Academy Awards for the Best International Feature Film category. It is also set to open this year’s Singapore International Film Festival from Nov 30-Dec 10.