Documentary about the creation of the chamber opera Si Fan, composed by Chinese composer Guo Wenjing in 2015 for the Nieuw Ensemble. In Si Fan (‘yearnings of love’), Guo combines traditional opera from his native Sichuan with his own music. “I don’t think when composing, I follow my heart”, Guo says to Ed Spanjaard, head conductor of the Nieuw Ensemble, who comes to visit him in China to learn about the secrets of Sichuan opera. In this painstaking film, Shen Tiemei, the star singer of the Sichuan opera, speaks about the differences between East and West, and between tradition and the modern age.
Inner Landscape is the second part of a tetralogy, the first part of which premiered at IDFA in 2011 (Gozaran – Time Passing, about Iranian composer Nader Mashayekhi). Director/producer Frank Scheffer made a ‘work in progress’ with the same title in 2015.