[SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from Dream Stall.]

It isn’t obvious at first, but Annette Lee, the homegrown star-director ofDream Stall, has something in common with Kane Parsons and Curry Barker, the makers behind Backrooms and Obsession, currently the No. 1 and No. 2 movies at the US box office.

Granted, they’re separated by oceans, time zones, and several million bucks in box-office receipts, but they all owe their start to YouTube.

“I think that was just the most democratised way of filmmaking back then,” Lee tells 8days.sg over a conference call, referring to her YouTube pedigree.

“When I graduated from [Nanyang Technological University with a Bachelor’s degree in Film/Cinema/Video Studies], there was no way that you could actually make something in terms of making a movie. This felt like something that was such a tall order that seemed completely impossible to ever do.”

For Lee — who spent a few years with digital content company SGAG before going solo in mid-2020 — that journey has culminated in Dream Stall, her feature directorial debut.

She plays Enya, a UK-educated business grad who returns to Singapore to take over her retiring father’s (Mark Lee) bak kut teh eatery, much to his disapproval.

Armed with grit and determination, as well as the support of two childhood pals (Xixi Lim and Jaspers Lai), Enya sets out to pursue her passion project.

Along the way, she crosses paths with foodie influencer Preston (Xander Pang), who takes a shine to her, and TV actress Estella (Ya Hui), who lends her name to a bak kut teh shop next to Enya’s.

The supporting cast also includes Cassandra See as Estella’s manager. Elsewhere,  there are cameo appearances by Hossan Leong and Jack Neo, with the latter playing a greedy landlord.

While Dream Stall is an intimate and hopeful story about chasing entrepreneurial dreams, getting it made was anything but.

Ask any filmmaker and they'll tell you that making a movie is no walk in the park — more like surviving a psychological thriller or going to war. It's intense, expensive, exhausting, and not for the faint-hearted.

In Lee’s case, her ‘campaign’ took her across the Causeway to Malaysia — ironic for a film celebrating Singapore hawker culture, though more on that later.

The movie also arrives at a time when cinema attendance is plunging and local films are battling an increasingly sceptical audience. Acknowledging that reality, Lee made headlines by offering refunds to moviegoers who felt Dream Stall was a waste of their time — a challenge born from her belief that local filmmakers need to earn audiences’ trust rather than expect it.

So perhaps it's too early to ask whether Lee has anything lined up next. That would be like being the annoying relative who keeps pestering everyone about their relationship status during Chinese New Year visits.

So give her some breathing room, for Pete’s sake.

But this much the mother of one will reveal: she won't be doing everything herself. (That, and horror — it’s not in her DNA.)

“I think for the next one onwards, I'm not doing three things at once,” she says. “I’ll probably write and act or write and direct.”

Below, Lee talks about audience criticism, filming in Malaysia, Jack Neo's cameo, and the hidden 8days Easter egg.

8days.sg: Dream Stall has been out for a few days now. What's the most brutal feedback you've received?

I definitely accepted that there’s definitely gonna be criticism. I'm a recovering perfectionist and I'll be the first person to tell you everything that's wrong in the film, everything I could have done better.

Maybe from the bad side, it's probably that it's a very safe and predictable kind of premise. Some people felt the pacing is too fast. Some people felt the pacing is too slow.

You can't please everybody.

One of the surprises is how little product placement there is in the movie.

I set out to make a commercial film, but I also know so many great commercial films where product placement isn't so in your face.

I only decided to work with brands that would fit the story. If it doesn't, I'm not going to shoehorn it in there.

I was not going to compromise on the integrity of this story.

Even the Coke-Pepsi scene wasn't product placement?

That was not sponsored. I mentioned both of them at the same time. It was kind of a commentary on the nature of endorsements.

Another thing that surprised me was how little ‘food porn’ there is in the movie. Were you consciously avoiding that?

Yeah, maybe that's one of the criticisms also.

I do think maybe there were some people who expected really gritty hawker life, all about the food and everything, and they might be disappointed when they realise that's not what the film is.

This is not a film literally about the cooking and the making of bak kut teh and the tough hawker life around it. I was trying to tell a slightly different story that was not actually 100 per cent focused on food.

If people really wanted a true-to-life hawker story, then sorry, this is not the film. The food itself was not the point of the movie. It was a movie about people.

What was left on the cutting room floor?

There was one whole scene that I really liked that I cut out. It was around the end. It was a scene between Doreen [played by Cassandra See] and Estella.

It was quite a heartfelt scene and I liked it. But towards the end, as we were locking the picture, the team felt that we had to bring the story back to Enya by the end.

Any plans to show it on YouTube?

Oh, we might release it as a deleted scene, maybe, if people care enough about the movie, but we’ll see.

Jack be nimble:Jack Neo has a cameo as a greedy landlord. Was he Lee’s first choice? “I was mainly casting for the leads at that point and the role of the landlord was open to anybody,” she said. “I hadn’t considered Jack until he did his video reacting to mine, which is when I thought I could get him to maybe cameo in the film. So I looked through the roles in the script and realised the landlord role would be perfect for him.”

Dream Stall presents a hopeful vision of the F&B industry, but the reality is much tougher. What conversations do you hope the movie sparks?

I think this is a film about celebrating our culture in all senses of it, not just in food. Somewhere in there is also a story that parallels the film culture in Singapore as well. Cinemas are also dying, just like how the hawker stalls are dying.

I hope it sparks a conversation not just in terms of food, but also in a larger aspect of Singaporean culture and how it's eroding so fast before our eyes. We're having less and less hawker food, more and more mala hotpots. We're having less and less local films and just Marvel movies in the cinemas.

Ironically, parts of the film were shot in Kuala Lumpur.

I wanted to shoot in Singapore, but it's impossible. There's no way anyone was going to let me shoot in their hawker stall for that many days without charging me a ridiculous amount of money. So I had no choice to film in a shop house in Malaysia instead.

I brought the bak kut teh over there. The bak kut teh, yau cai (herbs and spices) and everything.

You wrote, directed and starred in Dream Stall. Looking back, was there one responsibility you would’ve gladly abdicated?

Even at the start, actually I really don't want to act. I think that was the one I wanted to let go at first.

There were times where on set where I really, really, really second guessed myself, especially when I'm acting and directing.

I think maybe I couldn't have gone 100 per cent because I was not doing just one role. If I was acting, maybe I could have gone 100 per cent. If I was just directing, I've gone 100 per cent on that also.

I had to compromise a little on both in order to get both done. But if I look back, I feel like I did the best with whatever I could.

I think sometimes the beauty really is in the attempt and not in achieving perfection.

For the next one onwards, I'm not doing three things at once. I’ll probably write and act or write and direct.

What was it like directing Jack Neo? He did a cameo as a greedy landlord.

I just ran the lines with him and told him how I wanted them to be said. Then I gave him the freedom to improv a bit. It was actually very easy because he's so experienced.

Did he give you any directing notes?

No, he really just came in as an actor.

Jack Neo remains a divisive figure among moviegoers. There's still a stigma attached to him. I have friends who were hesitant about Dream Stall simply because they saw him in the trailer.

Tell your friends that he's just acting. And if they come watch the film, they get to see a scene of me throwing money at Jack Neo. I think they'll be interested to see that.

Did it feel good shooting that moment?

It was fun.

Carthartic, even?

Yeah, and I think it will be quite cathartic for your friends.

Multi-tasker: Lee directing a scene with Jaspers Lai and Hossan Leong. “There were times on set where I really, really, really second-guessed myself, especially when I’m acting and directing,” she said. “I spent the whole day directing and then suddenly after 10 hours of directing, I need to do a scene as an actor and I just can’t get into it because I’m not in the actor zone; I’m too stuck in the director brain.”

When you offered the refund challenge, you spoke of wanting to “earn back” audiences’ trust in local cinemas. You were addressing a deeper disconnect between Singapore films and Singapore audiences. What do you think local filmmakers have misunderstood about viewers over the years?

I don't really like that, you know, in Singapore we have this very, very clear divide between what is like arthouse films and what is like commercial films.

I love myself a good slow-moving art film every now and then. But I also love a good commercial mainstream film. And I also like films that are in between. I like films that were supposed to be artistic but are very entertaining and can pass for a more mainstream audience. And I also like a good mainstream film that has a deep enough message for you to be able to think about.

I kind of wanted to make a film that was somewhere in the in-between zone because I didn't really see a lot of that in Singapore.

I just wanted to make a commercial film where if you want to sit down and think a little bit more about it, there is stuff that can be thought-provoking.

Maybe for the commercial side, it might be too much of a business venture sometimes. It's a very Singaporean thing — pragmatism first. There's a lot of product placements and sponsors. I think that turns audiences off.

One of the other things also is maybe the lack of like Singlish Singlish. Usually it's like they either speak very proper English or very proper Mandarin.

I wanted to be free from that restriction and just speak however I felt like the characters would speak. I think maybe Singaporeans do want that.

Made in Singapore: Asked for her favourite homegrown films, Lee said, “I have a lot local films I like, but I’ll send you three – (1) Jack Neo’s I Not Stupid, (2) Sandi Tan’s Shirkers, and (3) Colin Goh and Woo Yen Ten’s Singapore Dreaming.”

Let's talk about the scene that looks suspiciously like an 8days article —because of the orange band — on a phone screen. Was it inspired by, ahem, 8days…

Yeah, of course.

You’re not pulling my leg, right? So it wasn’t a random decision?

It’s not random! Why is it random?

8days is the website that covers the most celebrity news in Singapore, I feel. Because Estella is a TV actress. That's the reason that 8days would report on her.

Dream Stall (PG13) is now in cinemas.

Photos: GV Pictures