Sandi Tan is set to tell another autobiographical coming-of-age story, but this time she’s working with someone else’s source material. The “Shirkers” helmer will write and direct an adaptation of Elif Batuman’s “The Idiot,” according to The Cut. Tan is joining forces with Animal Kingdom and Cinereach on the project.
Released in 2017, Pulitzer Prize finalist “The Idiot” is inspired by Batuman’s own life. The novel is set in 1995 and tells the story of Selin, a daughter of Turkish immigrants and freshman at Harvard who falls in love for the first time.
“I read it and I was like, ‘I love it so much, but I don’t know how to do it,’” said Tan. When she read it a second time, she figured out how she’d approach the adaptation. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, I have to do it. I know how to do it. I know how to do it!’” she recalled.
Tan broke out with 2018 Sundance winner “Shirkers.” The doc explores the history — and mystery — of a film Tan made when she was 18 years old. Also called “Shirkers,” the movie was filmed in Singapore in ’92 and starred Tan as teen murderer. During filming Tan became best friends with Georges, her director. Described as a “man of unplaceable age and origin,” Georges shocked Tan and the rest of the crew when he disappeared — and took all of “Shirkers’” footage with him.
Tan boarded “The Idiot” after writing a three-page email to Batuman, who was a fan of “Shirkers.” “It blew me away,” Batuman said. “I didn’t just love but also deeply recognized the sensibility of the recovered ’90s footage. Those saturated colors, the toothbrush salesman, the leg store — I felt such a kinship to 18-year-old Sandi and also to present-day Sandi who is sort of curating her 18-year-old self.”
Tan described “The Idiot” as the journey of “a woman who is head smart and heart stupid — that’s why she’s the idiot,” she explained. “And she’s being sucked into this vortex of obsession by this guy, and by the end of it she gets destroyed. But instead of turning into a vampire, she turns into an artist. And to watch that transformation is a wonderful thing.”
Tan compared her take on “The Idiot” as “‘Lady Bird’ goes to college.”
“Don’t think of yourself as a female director,” urged Tan when we asked her advice for female filmmakers. “Think of what concerns you and what drives you and what moves you — and yes, often these things will come from you being a female human — and let these instincts and desires inform your choices. Be ambitious, be hopeful.” She elaborated, “On a gender-specific note, I think we have a bad habit of apologizing too much. I know I do for the simplest things — saying things like, ‘I’m sorry this may be a dumb question, but…’ I have been told to quit doing that, and I’m now telling others to stop too. If your aim is to be unobtrusive, know that by saying ‘I’m sorry, but…’ you’ve already said three extraneous words!”
