Director Yeo Siew Hua will adapt Jesse Ball’s novel “Silence Once Begun” as his next feature, with Singapore’s Akanga Film Asia securing the rights and announcing the project at the Cannes Film Market.
Producer and Akanga founder Fran Borgia is developing the film as a wide-ranging co-production spanning Singapore, Japan, and partners across Asia and Europe – the same framework Akanga used for Chie Hayakawa’s “Renoir” (Cannes 2025) and Tan Siyou’s “Amoeba” (Toronto 2025). Yeo is currently working on the adaptation, with production scheduled for 2028.
Set in Japan, Ball’s novel follows a journalist whose wife suddenly falls silent. The journalist turns his attention to Oda Sotatsu, a man who has admitted to a string of disappearances but refuses to speak another word after surrendering to police. Everyone around the suspect has accounts to offer – but Sotatsu, facing the death penalty, will not.
“I am really drawn to this story about what it means to keep one’s silence and also in keeping to our commitments, especially in a world so full of noise and distractions. We all know about the power of words, but what of the value of silence? I find the novel by Jesse Ball profound and mysterious, and it is going to be a real pleasure for me to adapt these intriguing interrogations of the human heart onto screen,” Yeo said.
