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.
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