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Original Film Title: Simmer
Director’s Name: Claire Riverland
Writer’s Name: Claire Riverland, Matthew Cantone
Producer: Kristian Josevski
Country of Origin: Australia
Country of Filming: Australia
Language: English
Runtime: 12 minutes
Film Description:
After being fired from her parents’ cooking show in Hong Kong, 20-year-old Sunny Chan returns to Melbourne carrying more than a suitcase — she carries the quiet shame of failure in a family where image is everything.
Determined to prove she still belongs, Sunny turns to the one language she believes her parents understand: food. In her Australian family home, she attempts to recreate her family’s signature Shao Mai, convinced it will be the key to redemption and reconnection with her parents.
As her older brother Peter comes home from managing the family restaurant, their easy sibling banter slowly unravels into something deeper. Peter has already inherited the burden of responsibility; Sunny is still fighting to be seen. When she reveals her plan to return to Hong Kong to prove herself, Peter confronts her with a painful truth: chasing their parents’ approval is a losing game. What begins as playful teasing ignites into a raw confrontation about intergenerational pressure as Sunny is forced to choose between inherited ambition and forging an identity of her own.