In his latest, director Leste Chen (The Great Hypnotist) creates a fascinating dystopian vision as well as a complex psychological thriller. In an indeterminate future, a new medical technology can remove undesired memories from your brain, though the patient has the option of restoring them if they have second thoughts. Famous novelist Jiang Fen (Huang Bo, NYAFF 2010 Rising Star Award winner) has the operation to retrieve his discarded memories of how he met his now estranged wife only to discover a mistake has been made: his own once-cherished recollections of romance have been switched with those of a serial killer’s devious deeds. Soon he is whisked away into a desperate chase to find the real culprit. Battle of Memories is a hallucinogenic exploration into the human psyche built on dream logic, its mnemonic plot device toying with the tenuous and malleable nature of memory.

Co-presented with Confucius Institute Headquarters and China Institute