The Waves Will carry Us

The Waves Will Carry Us follows Ah Yao as he returns from Taiwan to Malaysia after the death of his father, expecting a traditional Taoist funeral. The ceremony takes an unexpected turn when the family discovers that his father had secretly converted to Islam, transforming mourning into a complex and darkly humorous journey through faith, identity, and family obligation. As Ah Yao and his siblings attempt to reconcile conflicting traditions, long-buried tensions and unresolved histories begin to surface. Blending emotional intimacy with moments of absurdity, the film traces generations of diasporic experience shaped by migration, cultural inheritance, and belonging. Moving between personal grief and broader social realities, The Waves Will Carry Us reflects on citizenship, exclusion, and the shifting meaning of home, asking where belonging truly lies when identity itself becomes contested.