Zheng Lu Xinyuan | 2022 | Switzerland, Austria | 111’ | digital | Mandarin, Burmese, English spoken, English subtitles

Emerging from the context of the recent global pandemic, this enigmatic essay film from Zheng Lu Xinyuan centres around the filmmaker’s initial lockdown in Austria and ensuing journey back to China. This is set against the family story of a missing patriarch – the filmmaker’s great grandfather who emigrated to Myanmar, leaving the family never to return.

This fractured narrative is collaged together as mixed media materials are unified into high contrast black and white video, allowing for a blending as the film shifts between time and place. Material gathered in Myanmar is interwoven with a series of intimate and playful scenes with the filmmaker’s friends and girlfriend. Family memories, childhoods, and past traumas are revealed, allowing for a personal exploration of memory, loss, and displacement.