A Girl Unknown

Born in the wake of China’s controversial one-child policy, six-year-old Wang Juan (Cao Ruofan) finds her life completely upended by her mother’s pregnancy. The young girl is soon taken from her rural home—where kite flying and swimming fill her days—and brought to the home of a discordant, childless couple. Abandoned in an unfamiliar city with her new legal guardians, Juan strives to find a sense of belonging, a struggle that only worsens when she’s uprooted twice more before turning eighteen. Anchored by a powerful performance from Resurrection’s Li Gengxi, who plays teenage Juan, Zou Jing’s confident debut is an achingly tender coming-of-age drama. And while it never shies away from the harrowing realities of the political directive that dehumanized and haunted so many, A Girl Unknown also reaffirms the undeniable, striking hopefulness of a young person’s belief in love and self.