Photo

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – A documentary about the lives of Singaporean exiles has been banned in Singapore on the grounds that it undermines national security.

“To Singapore, With Love” by the Singaporean filmmaker Tan Pin Pin was classified as NAR, the Media Development Authority said Wednesday. NAR stands for “Not allowed for all ratings,” meaning it can neither be shown nor distributed in Singapore.

Ms. Tan had traveled to the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Thailand to film the lives of nine Singaporeans, in their 60s and older. Among them were trade unionists, student leaders and Communists who fled in the 1960s and 1970s, for fear of being imprisoned under Singapore’s Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial.

In the film, they speak about their homeland, and how they cope in exile – by frying up a plate of Singapore rice noodles, or flying in to meet loved ones in neighboring Malaysia. One of them, Ang Swee Chai, a surgeon in London and the widow of another exile, said she found renewed purpose in life by traveling to provide medical aid to Palestinian refugees. For Ho Juan Thai, a former student leader also in London, the fear of being somehow accidentally sent back to Singapore kept him from marrying until he was 60.

The 70-minute movie had its premiere at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea last October. It has been shown at festivals in Berlin, Bangkok, Seoul, New York, Kuala Lumpur and Dubai, where Ms. Tan, 45, won an award for best documentary director at the Dubai International Film Festival.

The Media Development Authority said it took issue with the film’s version of history. “The MDA has assessed that the contents of the film undermine national security because legitimate actions of the security agencies to protect the national security and stability of Singapore are presented in a distorted way as acts that victimized innocent individuals,” the agency said in a press release on Wednesday.

“The individuals featured in the film gave the impression that they are being unfairly denied their right to return to Singapore,” the agency said. In fact, it added, former Communists can return “if they agree to be interviewed by the authorities on their past activities to resolve their cases” while other “criminal offenses will have to be accounted for in accordance with the law.”

“To Singapore, With Love,” was slated to be screened by the National University of Singapore Museum in late September, along with two of Ms. Tan’s earlier films. She said in a statement on Wednesday that she was “very disappointed” by the ban.

“I made this film because I myself wanted to better understand Singapore. I wanted to understand how we became who we are by addressing what was banished and unspoken for,” Ms. Tan said. “I was also hoping that the film would open up a national conversation to allow us to understand ourselves as a nation better too.”

She added: “Now, the irony [is] that a film about Singapore exiles is now exiled from Singapore as well.”

The film will be shown in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, just across the border next week as part of the Freedom Film Festival.