The Reunions

Dong Chengpeng's 2021 film came out of what happened to his own family. The director travels to his home village in Jilin with a crew to film his grandmother's New Year celebration. Before shooting starts she dies, and the plan is left in his hands. The camera does not stop: from there the film turns into the argument the family has among themselves, above all over who will look after the uncle who lives with a mental illness. It holds documentary and fiction inside one telling and leaves the line between them deliberately unclear. Its short version won best short film at the Golden Horse Awards. It is not an easy watch and makes no claim to be.