Students Raise Bullying and Suicide Awareness Via ‘Lex Talionis’

By Daniel Lim

Formed by a group of final year film students, Fruit Punch Production wowed the audience with their film ‘Lex Talionis’, a 30-minute thriller-horror film which tells of a story of four college students whose friendship is put to test after visiting an abandoned house.

Not only the film delivered industry -standard production skills, the team of final year IACT broadcasting and film students also addressed hard topics like suicidal thoughts, bullying and depression tactfully.

“We knew our story has to be something dark the moment we formed our production team. We explored different psychological issues including bipolar and schizophrenia.

“However, after several revisions on our script, we resolved to bullying and suicide” said director Ryan Yoon, who co-wrote the story with his teammate Amanda Chua.

‘Lex Talionis’ was one of four flicks premiered on big screen at Auditorium Angkasa on Aug 3 at the film showcase from IACT College final year broadcasting students.

The screening saw a 900-strong crowd. Which included filmmakers from various local film productions, friends and families of the graduating film students.

Scriptwriter Amanda Chua said: “I believe everyone suffers certain level of bullying growing up, be it physically, verbally or virtually (cyber-bullying), and we surely have known someone with suicidal thoughts.

“Therefore it is only right when we use our craft to raise awareness on these issues, especially among the younger viewers which our film cater to.”

The team is made up of eight members who took on different roles in film production. The film took the team seven days to shoot and close to two weeks of post-production.

When asked if they have any plan to bring this film further, producer Nicole Lau said they might submit the film for a competition and have a TV drama series planned out.

“We’d love to bring this film further, and who knows, we can create more films that address tough topics like suicide and depression!”