A Family Tour
56th New York Film Festival
September 28 - October 14, 2018
Exiled Chinese director Ying Liang’s return to feature filmmaking is a characteristically precise drama following a Hong Kong–exiled director (Gong Zhe) as she travels to a film festival in Taiwan with her husband and toddler and must avoid attracting attention. It’s a powerful work of autobiography and an empathetic snapshot of a mother-daughter relationship.
Since his 2012 feature When Night Falls, a stinging critique of state power that the Chinese authorities attempted to suppress, the director Ying Liang has been forced to live in exile in Hong Kong. His return to feature filmmaking is a characteristically precise and powerful work, and an autobiographical one, inspired by his own precarious situation and based on a reunion with his in-laws. The film follows a Hong Kong–exiled director (Gong Zhe) as she travels to a film festival in Taiwan with her husband and toddler, while her ailing mother (Nai An) vacations there separately with a tour group. To avoid attracting attention, the family shadows the tour’s sightseeing itinerary, visiting each other during photo stops and mealtimes. An empathetic snapshot of a mother-daughter relationship, this brave, poised film is also a deeply moving testament to the inseparability of the personal and the political.
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