Xiaolu Guo
Xiaolu GUO (1973, China) is a Chinese filmmaker and novelist whose work navigates migration, memory, and the cultural and linguistic shifts between East and West. Active across fiction and documentary, her films have screened at major international festivals including Sundance, Locarno, Venice, and MoMA’s New Directors/New Films. Her cinematic language often blends personal narratives with political observation. She is also an acclaimed author writing in both Chinese and English, known for novels, essays and memoirs. Her work is selected for IFFR 2026’s The Future is NOW focus.
Filmography
Far and Near (2003, short doc), The Concrete Revolution (2004, doc), Address Unknown (2006, short), Jin tian de yu ze me yang?/How Is Your Fish Today? (2006), We Went to Wonderland (2008, doc), An Archeologist’s Sunday (2008, short), She, a Chinese (2009), Once Upon a Time Proletarian (2009, doc), UFO in Her Eyes (2011), Late at Night – Voices of Ordinary Madness (2013, doc) Five Men and a Caravaggio (2018, doc), Rocks Remember (2022, doc), Three Ways of Returning (2026)
Xiaolu Guo at IFFR
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Three Ways of Returning
Mania Akbari, Xiaolu Guo, Andrea Luka Zimmerman | 81' | China | World premiere
A rich three-part essay film portraying attempts at reconnecting with often traumatic pasts, spanning China, Germany and Iran. -
Wayfaring Stranger
Andrea Luka Zimmerman | 70' | United Kingdom | World premiere
Imbued with profound reflections, Wayfaring Stranger is an experiential journey into living your own way. -
Script Stage: Xiaolu Guo & Rao Hui
Scenario presentation. Xiaolu Guo & Rao Hui form a striking Chinese writing duo. In their film How Is Your Fish Today? the screenwriting itself plays -
How Is Your Fish Today?
Xiaolu Guo | 83' | China | International premiere
Road movie in which a scriptwriter and the protagonist in his film, a murderer, travelled to the most northerly point of China to meet each… -
We Went to Wonderland
Xiaolu Guo | 79' | China | World premiere
This is a prime example of how to make an accessible and convincing film about complex and personal subjects on a low budget and without… -
Address Unknown
Xiaolu Guo | 10' | China | World premiere
A moving postcard, as it were. A woman addresses her lover in London all the way from Beijing. -
Late at Night – Voices of Ordinary Madness
Xiaolu Guo | 70' | Switzerland | International premiere
Strong, original film essay on the changing East End of London. A model for Europe and the rest of the world. Author and filmmaker Xiaolu… -
Once Upon a Time Proletarian
Xiaolu Guo | 75' | Germany | None
Portrait of post-Maoist China in twelve commentaries by inhabitants of the country. Writer/film maker Guo Xialolu sketches a varied picture of a China -