Succinct, handheld camerawork and deft performances amplify the drama's emotional clout.

Ilo Ilo deals with that perennial dilemma of the middle-class working parent: how to deal with the live-in nanny who begins to usurp your role.

Chen builds his case not with sentimentality and obvious plot points, but through everyday life -- showering, doing laundry, dropping the boy off at school, phone calls.

With a sense of subtlety, Chen synthesizes a moving portrait of a Singaporean family that, at its intimate core, dialogues about the economic crisis and interculturality of a country in transition towards globalized prosperity. [Full review in Spanish]