Locarno Winners Reunite for Jesse Ball Adaptation ‘Silence Once Begun’ (EXCLUSIVE)

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.

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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.

“I wrote ‘Silence Once Begun’ as a novel of social critique in which that which is visionary in the human is given only one outlet: silence and refusal. That tale is even more timely now than when it was written, and I am delighted to see the marvelous talents of Siew Hua bring the book to cinema. This is a bleak tale, but it is one of love, and, I think, of hope,” Ball added.

“We were captivated by the cinematic potential of Jesse’s characters. Our goal is to build a robust international co-production that honours the book’s atmosphere while creating a film that speaks to the power of silence,” Borgia said.

Yeo and Borgia previously collaborated on “A Land Imagined,” which claimed the Golden Leopard at Locarno in 2018. Yeo’s most recent feature, “Stranger Eyes” (2024), was the first Singaporean title to earn a Venice competition berth.

Ball is an American novelist, poet and educator whose books include “How to Set a Fire and Why,” “Census” and “The Repeat Room.” He is represented by Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. and CAA. Among Borgia’s other recent producing credits is Rima Das’ “Not A Hero,” which premiered at Berlinale 2026.