Saudade is an aural and visual archive narrated entirely in Kristang—a creole language that emerged in 16th century Portuguese colonial Malacca. The film reimagines rituals and choreography characteristic of early Eurasian kampongs in three acts: a song and dance of the Jinkli Nona, a scene between a shrimp fisherman and his wife, and a cross-cultural encounter with the Malay ghost orang minyak. Using folklore and myth as narrative anchors, Morton weaves his personal identity and allegorical storytelling into cinema to examine the origins of Eurasians. The intermingled Asian and European ancestry of the domiciled community is captured through the seemingly disparate appearance of a supernatural Malay legend alongside characters donning costumes that draw upon the conventions of Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch dress. Set against the exultant energies of the Eurasian imagination, the film tells a story of loss and displacement of a people and its language.

Russell Morton is a Singaporean filmmaker and visual artist. Morton’s interest lies in folklore and mythologies and attempts to string together a relationship between the human experience with ancient narratives. His films have been part of the Athens Video Art Festival 2012 and participated in several group shows in London including the South London gallery and Gasworks. The film, The Silent Dialogue of All Artworks was screened at the National Museum of Singapore’s 10th Singapore Short Cuts, The Substation’s 4th Experimental Film Forum and the Thai Short Film & Video Festival 2014. The film later went on to win Best Experimental Film at the 5th Singapore Short Film Awards. He is currently working on his first feature film about Malayan ghosts.