This is the story of a photograph: a little boy and his mother in a car that turns out to be a cardboard mockup. In voiceover, the woman recalls the memories stirred by the photo, and shares them with her son: family summer holidays in Lushan, to escape the heat. More photos appear, along with home movies, official archival footage and clips from popular movies of the time. Gradually, multiple generations and Chinese society after the Cultural Revolution come into focus on-screen through washed-out images of a bygone and sometimes forgotten past. This memorial essay by filmmaker Lei Lei is a sensitive and inspired film that threads the needle between family nostalgia, historical quests and formal experimentation. (Apolline Caron-Ottavi)

Presented in collaboration with VISIONS

A Bright Summer Diary