5TH EDITION ★ 1 - 24 MARCH 2024 ★ GHENT
Send me to the clouds 送我上青云
Director: Teng Congcong
Synopsis
After working in a big city for several years, 29-year-old journalist Sheng Nan is struck by the fact that she has contracted gynecologic cancer. Branded as a “leftover lady” for being still single, Sheng Nan is stressed at all ends: Her life on the line, her financial burden, and the innate fear that she would lose all sexual pleasure even if the cancer is cured. She is hopelessly watching her chance to live, to love, and to enjoy sex slowly slipping by.
To raise money for her surgery, she accepts her colleague’s arrangement to write a biography for an old painter who lives in seclusion in the misty mountains. Sheng Nan is accompanied by her mother Liang Meizhi, who lost her husband to a mistress and her appearance to a failed plastic surgery. In the journey uphill, Sheng Nan is heartbroken for falling in love with a married man, whilst Liang is rejuvenated by being loved by the old painter. The two contrasting minds share similar stubbornness towards love and self but take on different paths in rebelling against the patriarchal world. This journey does not only elevate Sheng Nan to the mountains but also her understanding to her mother and, above all, herself.
About the director
Rising filmmaker Teng Congcong is the apprentice of veteran director Xie Fei. She graduated from Beijing Film Academy with a master degree in Directing. She was awarded Int'l Young Film Makers Award in 2011 at Hannover Up-and-coming Film Festival and 5th Asia INt'l Youth Film Festival for When I Was a Little Girl. In 2009, she participated in the film editing of Reign Of Assassins, and also shot the documentary Hang Shang Wang Shui. Send me to the Clouds is Teng' feature directorial debut.
Director's statement
Nowadays, China is in the most contradictory and dramatic era ever in history. With the gap between rapid economic development and progress of social civilization continuing to grow, Chinese traditional values confront western cultural influence, and conflict between will of the state and will of individuals abound. Moreover, women are jidged under a complex and chaotic value system and their feelings and confusions have been largely neglected in the male-dominant discourse system. This is where my film starts.