Rising star: Singaporean filmmaker Boo Junfeng

Ever since he was a teenager, Boo Junfeng knew he wanted to be a filmmaker. ‘I fell in love with the idea of make-believe, that within the frame of a film you are able to take the audience to a different world,’ he says. Photo: Yew Jiayun

Moments before he was supposed to go on stage to give his opening remarks at Cannes Film Festival back in May, where his movie Apprentice was selected to be screened in the Un Certain Regard section, director Boo Junfeng was trembling.

He was feeling all the emotions – fear, anxiety, trepidation, nervousness. Understandably so as Apprentice was five years in the making and will be shown for the first time to the public. The audience in Cannes is known to be brutally honest and unforgiving.