As much as we want the most talented people to win a talent show, most of us know that there are other factors when it comes to selecting the winner. The most obvious factor would be the competition available, but there’s also the audience and life circumstances that can get in the way. Talentime centers on a school auditioning and preparing for their talent show, and through looking at the contestants’ day-to-day lives with writer-director Yasmin Ahmad’s signature slice-of-life style, Ahmad paints a broad picture of Malaysia’s multicultural society– the code-switching, the differing expectations between class and race, and the love that persists despite prejudice.

Considering this was Yasmin Ahmad’s last film, the plot line with Hafiz and his mom hits harder.