All About My Sisters
A searing portrait of Jin, filmed by her sister. Abandoned as a baby, Jin, now a young woman, faces multi-generational family trauma.
174'
USA
IFFR 2021
‘Where have all the parents gone?’ This haunting film from southern China seems to paraphrase Pete Seeger's famous anti-war song about missing flowers. Three young teenage girls − and one silent little sister who faithfully tags along − are in a small mountain village that would be considered a paradise if it wasn’t so poor, backward and unsafe. Most parents are far away in Shenzhen, or some other industrious metropolis. Left to their own devices, to the care of some unfit teacher or ageing grandparent, they are fighting off bullying classmates, sticking together where possible. The girls have to navigate unknown dangers when they decide to borrow money to pay for the long voyage to the city.
Too lyrically observed to be called quasi-documentary, too infused with the raw energy of the superb youthful cast to be really gothic, too sensitive and tragic to be a moralist fable, and indeed, almost too elegantly written to be a debut − yet it is all that.
IFFR 2021
Programme IFFR 2021
A special edition of Bright Future in which each programmer presents a fresh feature debut from the cutting edge of filmmaking.
Still: Phoenix
Read more about this programmeA searing portrait of Jin, filmed by her sister. Abandoned as a baby, Jin, now a young woman, faces multi-generational family trauma.
174'
USA
IFFR 2021
The sensation of being overwhelmed by nature shot in aesthetic black and white. With an undercurrent of spiritual connectedness.
79'
Netherlands
IFFR 2021
Poetic film essay on Syria – a country that for many now only exists in memories, or dreams.
83'
Canada
IFFR 2021