I came for love, it wasn't just love for my wife, but also for this country' quips Leonidas as he recounts on his nine years in Singapore. He ponders on his complex, "multinational" identity, the love that he's grown to have for Singapore, its people, its language, and incorporating all that he holds dearly into his play, Localised.
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00:00She asked me, you want to try? It's a bit spicy. I said, okay, probably the most
00:04challenging experience ever. Two years later, after getting some practice with spice,
00:08I told my wife, hey, I want to go back to that stall. I've tried that one. And I said,
00:14that's not spicy at all. So in one or two years, I built some resistance to spiciness.
00:30Hi, my name is Leonidas. I'm 50 years old. I lived most of the time in Spain,
00:34and now I'm in Singapore as a PR. I'm a Romanian descendant. My both parents are from Romania.
00:41They moved to Germany somewhere in the early seventies with the work. I was born there in
00:461974. Then at the age of five, we moved to Romania where I lived until the age of 14.
00:52And at the age of 14, I moved to Spain until 41. And at the age of 41, I moved to Singapore.
00:59I lived in Singapore nine years plus. Overall, it's a very positive impact. Honestly,
01:07I don't want to move back to Europe to live. I love Singapore. So
01:10for now, Singapore is my home. I want to leave and retire. For me, it's home.
01:16Hi.
01:33And this is almost like my headquarters, you know. I mean, I come here for my breakfast
01:38practically every weekend. Usually I sit there because it's more retired and I have the whole
01:44view of the palm trees, the coconut trees, the grass and everything, the greenery. And I found
01:48a lot of inspiration to write there, surprisingly. I need the buzzling people around, you know,
01:53the noisy people talking so I can immerse. It helps a lot. So what brought me to Singapore
02:01in the first place was my wife. She's local Singaporean, local Chinese. In 2014, my wife
02:08had to come because some family things she had to take care of. And then I just came also.
02:14When I came to Singapore, I practically came to get married to her. When I came for the first
02:18time to Singapore in 2008, I had a feeling. I just came out from the airport and the feeling I had
02:26once I stepped out of the airport and I look at the scenery, I look at the green, I look at the
02:30people, it felt home. It's something that I never felt in 27 years I lived in Spain. It's so strong,
02:36you know, what I have with Singapore because me being here in Singapore is a love story.
02:41I came for love. And it was double reinforced that it wasn't just love for my wife,
02:47it was also love for this country. It was love at the first sight when I came here.
02:52I'm a passionate actor. So when you love something, you want to get yourself involved with
02:59all the aspects and of course, screenwriting. So I wanted to come up with a feature screenplay.
03:06I used this term localised to name one of my screenplays that I wrote. I wanted to bring
03:13a bit of my own experiences in Singapore. I wanted to make a tribute to Singapore itself.
03:21I wanted to bring along the treasure you guys have here, the diversity, the multicultural aspect and
03:27the multi-religious trait. It's a mind blowing. It's a thought provoking, you know, because you
03:34don't find it anywhere else in such a small place. So balanced. You know, actually the first
03:42draft, I wrote it mostly here at that table. Second to last one. What I love about the people
03:49here and I tried my best to bring it into the script was the interaction between the different
03:54ethnicity groups. I mean, I have it in my workplace, I witnessed in restaurant, in the street,
04:00everywhere, in the mall, in the MRT, in the bus. I see it's the harmony there is between different
04:07ethnicities. And this is what captured my attention. You will see Chinese, Caucasian, Malay,
04:14Indian, the most representative ethnicities all together, working together, suffering together and
04:21finding a common ground together. And it's an ensemble cast story. It's not a character driven
04:26where you will see the all four ethnicities, five including Eurasians, playing equal parts in the
04:33story. As a foreigner, for me, it's much easier to see kind of from outside. I live here, right, but I'm
04:40not born here, I'm not raised here. It's easy to see the beauty, the treasure that Singapore has here.
04:46This is a gem, this is, it's a diamond at an emotional level, you know, to have all this kind of
04:54mixture, this kind of intertwined ethnicities. While Singaporean can speak a very beautiful English,
05:01it's the Singlish. I love it because it's so Singaporean. I mean, this is the identity.
05:08From my humble opinion, I would encourage to keep it, to keep it going. As a matter of fact, localized,
05:13but I would say to have 70% Singlish. I mean, you'll easily find sentences like,
05:20ken me, alamak, kenola, ayo, this kind of things. It's very common.
05:29I used to come here, this stall, before the COVID. Every weekend, practically, you know.
05:33Well, here we are, like back in the day, you know. Old good days. Hey, hi. Long time no see.
05:40Yeah, how are you? I'm fine, I'm fine. How's your son? There, he's quite busy. Now he's busy. Yeah, very busy.
05:48I'm glad to see the shop is actually working pretty good. Happy to see old friends.
05:51Of course, always. Good to see you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't forget me. No, I didn't forget you. That's why we're here.
05:58There are not many reasons, actually, that I want to leave Singapore. There would be very few,
06:04very few. My wife is the reason to stay. Her family, my family, is the reason to stay.
06:12The overall Singapore itself, the way, the way it is, it's the reason to stay. If there was
06:19an advice for a younger version of me, I would tell him, take Mandarin lessons more seriously,
06:25because the older you grow, the more difficult it becomes to learn new languages.
06:30I could communicate better with my mother-in-law. I could communicate better to the elderly people
06:35here in Singapore, at least with the Chinese segment. Another advice to my younger self,
06:41at the end of the tunnel, there's always a light. So, do what you have to do, do you,
06:47because better moments will come. Right now, hello or the light? Now it's the light.
07:05I want to thank you for bringing this wonderful person to this world, Sarah, my wife, who has been
07:20and continues to be by my side for many years. I want to thank you for letting me meet you.
07:27This society is full of colours, culture and philosophy, with so much love for life,
07:32complex and, at the same time, so simple. Let me thank you with the film script
07:39written for you, Singapore, where I bring to light this jewel that only you possess,
07:46the ethnic-cultural wealth reflected in a diversified cast. Let me introduce you,
07:52Localized. And to say goodbye to you, I wanted to tell you that I fell in love with you from the
07:58first moment I saw you, on September 2nd, 2008. Signed, Leonidas Esterescu.