Singaporean director loses leg

Met my sister over the weekend and she told me about her friend, Bertrand. I only remember him as one of the many people who used to hang out at my house. But although I have never spoken to him, news of him losing a leg, being on so much painkillers that he’s become incoherent and suffering one complication after another, shook me.

Update: “Incoherent” is probably not the perfect word in this case. But I can’t think of another one.
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A director not showing up to claim his award at the Bangkok International Film Festival. It’s not really news. Happens all the time.

Except Singapore director Bertrand Lee had a good excuse for missing the January 21 ceremonies — he had lost a leg.

Lee, 27, won the award for best Asean Short Film (the Jameson’s Best Asian Short Film Award) for Birthday, about a young teenage couple facing the last day of their relationship — on their son’s birthday.

Just a week before the ceremony, Lee was in India making another film. According to the Scotsman report, dated March 22, he was “peering into his camera lens in India when a truck reversed into him, crushing his legs and pelvis”.

The leg had to be amputated and he couldn’t travel to Thailand to attend the festival. Since then, an appeal has been launched to support Lee in his recovery.

from rotten tomatoes