‘Does the truth really matter when it comes to love?’ Ex-national fencer Nelicia Low gets personal with 1st feature film, wins Best Director at Czech festival

It’s only her first feature film, but national fencer-turned-director Nelicia Low managed to impress the panel at the 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF).

On July 6, she won the Best Director Award at the Czech festival for her film Pierce, a joint endeavour between Taiwanese, Singapore and Polish production companies starring Taiwanese actors Liu Hsiu-fu,Tsao Yu-ning and Ding Ning.

“I was elated just to be selected,” Nelicia, 33, told AsiaOne. “The response to the film was incredible — after the standing ovation at the premiere, people came up to me saying that they called their siblings to tell them they loved them right after watching my film.”

She added that she was also stopped on the streets of Karlovy Vary by people wanting to tell her they loved her film, and received numerous messages of congratulations on Instagram.

Nelicia continued: “The jury this year was very high profile, consisting of actor Geoffrey Rush and Christine Vachon (who produced Past Lives and Boys Don’t Cry), so for me just the fact that they could watch my film was already incredible.

“To be awarded Best Director by them left me in shock, I am still processing everything.”

Nelicia’s family was also in attendance at KVIFF, and they took turns carrying the “extremely heavy” globe she was awarded. Her win was also a “very emotional moment” for them as Pierce was inspired by Nelicia’s relationship with her autistic brother.

In it, Zijie (Hsiu-fu) is a teenage fencer who visits his older brother Zihan (Yu-ning) in juvenile prison, despite the wishes of their mother (Ding Ning). He initially believes his brother, convicted of killing an opponent during a fencing match, is innocent, but soon begins to question his belief.

Nelicia told us that Pierce was initially inspired by the 2014 Taipei metro attack, which happened while she was there filming her short film Freeze, that saw a 21-year-old fatally stab four in a train and leave 24 injured.

“While his parents went onto the streets of Taipei to publicly apologise and begged the government to execute their son, his younger brother visited him at the police station, crying, in denial that his older brother could do something so monstrous,” she recalled.

“His younger brother’s reaction made me wonder about my relationship with my older brother.”

Nelicia explained that she used to “idealise” her older brother when she was young, but realised as she grew up that their entire relationship was “made up” in her head.

“Accepting that I would never know if my brother actually reciprocated my love has been a painful journey for me, and is the same one the lead character Zijie takes in Pierce,” she said.

“Perhaps as a way to cope with the fact that my brother is autistic, I projected my love onto him as a child — I imagined him to be this caring, loving older brother who always held my hand when we were out together.”

She realised later on that her brother never held her hand willingly, and that she and her parents would hold his hand instead to prevent him from running away as they were afraid “he would get lost due to his hyperactivity”.

“I had gaslit myself into believing that my act of protecting him was his act of love for me,” she added. “When I grew up and truly understood my brother’s condition, what was strange was that the love I had for him, which was built on a fantasy, remained as strong and pure as ever.

“This is precisely what I want to explore in Pierce — does the truth really matter when it comes to love?”

Similarities between fencing and directing: ‘The hyper focus, brainpower and reaction speed’

Nelicia told AsiaOne that she had wanted to be a film director since she was six, and actually pursued fencing due to her love for movies.

“I wanted to join fencing in the first place because of some of the movies I loved when I was a kid — Star Wars and Lord of the Rings,” she explained. “So it was films that led me to fencing and not the other way around.”

She also noted the similarities between her past career as a fencer, which saw her compete at the 2010 SEA Games, and directing.

“The hyperfocus, brainpower and reaction speed I need when I am fencing on the piste during a competition is similar to that of directing,” she said.

“There is a constant time constraint and you need to get the shot as quickly as possible, constantly think on your feet and adapt, while balancing all the aspects like the actors’ performance, script, camera, art direction, sound, keeping the entire film in your mind at all times… Both are extremely intense.”

The brothers being fencers also fit into the movie, as Nelicia characterised Zihan as “hyper intelligent, enigmatic and manipulative”.

“Fencing is very much like chess played with swords, all about strategy and predicting each other’s moves,” she said. “Therefore it made sense that he would flourish at it, for he would be able to predict what his opponents would do, while preventing them from guessing what he would do next.

“This also reflects Zijie’s experience when he is trying to guess what his brother’s true intentions and motives are, if his brother is actually a sociopath, and if his brother truly cares for him.”

Nelicia is currently in negotiations for the Singapore release of Pierce, which is set to coincide with its entry into a Taiwanese film festival and release there.