PETALING JAYA, May 14 ― A Malaysian-made film based on a real-life criminal case in Hong Kong will be screened at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in France on Friday.

Since its release last May, Million Loves in Me has been taking the film festival circuit by storm, including winning Best Foreign Language Feature Film at the Fusion International Film Festivals in Valencia, Spain and Best Screenplay at the 2019 Gold Movie Awards earlier this year in London.

Canadian-based producer John Y told Malay Mail via email that the Hong Kong-Malaysian collaboration has won 13 best picture awards to date.

The Sampson Yuen-directed film centres around a mother and daughter who suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and their hoarding of hundreds of dogs and cats in their Hong Kong apartment comes to light following a journalist’s investigations.

The story was inspired by a real-life case in Hong Kong when a 45-year-old woman named Katy was charged with animal cruelty after more than a hundred cats and dogs were found in her apartment.

According to an interview published by the Golden Globe Awards, the script was written John Y, Katy’s former lawyer who represented her in the 2002 court case.

In the Cantonese-Mandarin film, John also plays Katy. Hong Kong actress Lo Koon-Lan takes on the role of Katy’s mother while Malaysian actress Ruby Yap has a supporting role.

Last seen in Zahir Omar’s multi-lingual crime drama Fly by Night, Yap took home the Best Supporting Actress in a Foreign Language Film award at the North Europe International Film Festival in February for Million Loves in Me.

Million Loves in Me is produced by Lustre Film Sdn Bhd and distributed by California Pictures.