China / 2016 / 85 min. / Director: ZHANG Hanyi
The setting is a mountain village in Shanxi Province, China. The film begins with the premise that the soul of Xiuying, a woman who died several years previously, has possessed the body of her son Leilei. In his guise, Xiuying conveys a wish to Leilei’s father, her former husband. She wants him to uproot a tree they planted to commemorate their marriage, and move it to another place... The directorial debut of ZHANG Han-yi could be described as a kind of ghost story. Several strange incidents occur in the course of the film, but they are intriguingly depicted not as bizarre, but extremely normal. The latest work from Wings Project, for which JIA Zhang-ke produces films by up-and-coming directors. Screened in the Berlin International Film Festival’s Forum section.
