Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish

In his latest film, director Lei Lei embarks on a search for identity by travelling back in time to China in the 1950s and 1960s. In interviews with his father and grandfather and thus based on the men’s memories, the film tells the painful story of a family that was separated and yet tried everything to reunite during the turbulent time of the Culture Revolution. The director’s grandfather, former bank executive Ting, is forcibly sent to the countryside, while his son Jiaqi (Lei Lei’s father) stays behind with his two sisters and ailing mother. When Jiaqi’s mother dies, the three children are sent to an orphanage, where they are like birds in a cage. But unlike in a fairy tale, a rainbow fish appears to them, who morphs into their new stepmother and from then on takes care of them.

Although the footage of the father and grandfather was shot separately, Lei Lei has managed to bring the men’s voices together in a way as if three generations were sitting around a table telling each other anecdotes from their lives. Lei Lei visualises the silence between the conversations with mountains, rivers and people that have been specially brought to life. Coloured clay figures portraying the characters and collages juxtapose the dreary, monochromatic propaganda images. “Silver Bild and Rainbow Fish” has already been screened this year at the renowned festivals in Rotterdam and Annecy. (Xenia Nguyen)