Zijie is a young fencer longing to reconnect with his estranged older brother Zihan, who mysteriously returns after seven years in juvenile prison for killing an opponent during a fencing match. Zijie believes Zihan’s insistence that he is innocent and secretly decides to help him, defying their mother’s efforts to erase Zihan from their lives. In return, Zihan starts to train Zijie in fencing and Zijie improves immensely, getting selected to compete at the upcoming national championships.

As the brothers grow closer, their mother finds out that they have re-united and is furious at Zijie, yet Zijie stubbornly sticks by his brother. But Zihan’s hostile past is triggered after an argument, leaving Zijie to finally question whether his beloved brother might be a violent sociopath after all.

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Nelicia Low grew up in Singapore where she represented her country as a national fencer for five years. In 2018, she received her MFA in film directing at Columbia University in New York. Since then, she has been working as writer and director. Her second short film FREEZE (2016) premiered at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and screened at over 70 film festivals around the world. In 2018/2019, she was selected for the Singapore International Film Festival’s Southeast Asian Film Lab and the Less is More European Film Lab. PIERCE is her debut feature film.

Filmography: 2014 FREAK, 2016 FREEZE (both short films), 2024 PIERCE

Awards: Award for Best Director within the Crystal Globe Competition (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Czech Republic 2024)