Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish is an ode to family, memory, reconstruction of family history in the history of China. We will show the film twice:
28.11. 21:00 at Slovene Cinematheque
4.12. 21:00 at Kinodvor – followed by an online Q&A with the author!

On the audio track Lei Jiaqi starts to recall the 1950s. He is then 4 years old and his father Lei Ting is sent to the countryside. Jiaqi stays behind with his sisters and his ill mother. When mum passes away and turns into a Silver Bird, Ting is forbidden to stay in the town with his children. The kids are sent to an orphanage, where they turn into birds in a cage. While the country is in turmoil, a Rainbow Fish transforms itself into a woman and decides to help the kids.

Caught between semi-gods and mass madness, in a world of propaganda images, surrealist collage and pop-art animation, Lei’s family struggle to live through China’s tumultuous times of the 1950s and 1960s. Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish is an ode to family, memory, reconstruction of family history in the history of China.

I would say this film is an essay film. When we talk about essay films, we may think of this vein of cinema from the 1960s onwards. It could be considered as a third way of cinema, between live action and documentary, which allows the authors to express themselves more freely with sounds and images. Essay film has less restriction on filmmaking. For example, live action films can encounter constraints on actors or budgets, and documentaries can be limited by the timing of filming or ethics. But an essay film is more personal and more self-contained. So in terms of classification, I think my film is in tune with essay film.
– Lei Lei

Awards and festivals (selection):
– Contrechamp competition, Annecy 2022
– Young Cinema Competition, Hong Kong IFF 2022
– Nominee for Audience Award, Leipzig DOK Festival 2022
– Official Competition, Ottawa IAF 2022
– Tiger Competition, IFF Rotterdam 2022

Trailer:

Novice