How director's cats inspired teen girl's horror transformation in Malaysian film 'Tiger Stripes'

'Tiger Stripes' centres around a 12-year-old girl who can’t make sense of what is happening with her body as puberty hits. Photo: Ghost Grrrl Pictures

The Malaysian body-horror film Tiger Stripes – the first South-east Asian movie to win the Critics’ Week Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival – pays homage to 1950s horror flicks as well as the bizarre creatures of Malay folklore.

And its writer-director Amanda Nell Eu – the first Malaysian female director to screen a feature at Cannes – discovered her three young lead actresses by scouring Instagram and TikTok at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.