Nelicia Low

Nelicia Low grew up in multilingual Singapore, where she was born with a thirst for stories. She represented Singapore as a National Fencer and retired after the 2010 Asian Games to focus on filmmaking. She received her MFA in Film Directing at Columbia University in New York.

Her short film FREEZE premiered at the 38th Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, and went on to screen at the 53rd Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, 33rd Busan International Short Film Festival, as well as over 70 international film festivals around the world.

In 2019, she came to LIM to work on her first feature, GOD SISTER, a dark comedy set on Matsu island in Taiwan. Having grown up with an autistic brother in a complicated family, Nelicia’s films explore the paradox of mentally-able people actually being more disturbed than their mentally disabled counterparts, as well as love and perversity in the context of family.

God Sister

LIM | Less is More 2019

18-year-old HUI, a wannabe Instagram model, is stuck taking care of her older autistic brother XIANG on Matsu Island in Taiwan, as her mother has run away and her father only cares about his business. At her amateur play where none of her followers show up, her MOTHER suspiciously appears. Her Mother has started her own cult, praying to the water goddess Matsu, but is in deep trouble because she had claimed that the Goddess was going to appear the week before. She proposes that Hui act as the Goddess for an hour in exchange for taking care of Xiang. Hui readily agrees. They manage to fool the cult followers, but when Hui sees how much they love her, she decides to move into the cult compound with Xiang, usurping Mother’s position as the leader. Mother furiously launches a war against Hui, making Hui fat. Hui forces Mother to shave her head. Meanwhile, Xiang is happy to have the protection of the Goddess Matsu, as he is afraid of water and is learning how to swim. Father arrives and steps in to stop the madness. But he only makes matters worse. When her parents team up, things turn fatal. Hui must decide if she will adopt her parents’ evil ways…