So Long, My Son

This epic family portrait revolves around a couple who suffer the accidental and tragic loss of a child. The film’s poetic, episodic structure moves around in time, gradually revealing the devastating impact of the event, as well as the human capacity to endure and perhaps transcend tragedy. “Moving from the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution through the new ‘socialist market economy,’ with its sudden riches and social inequalities, and in the shadow of China’s one-child policy, Wang paints a grand historical fresco about family and parenthood, the private and the political, and the process of mourning” (Giovanna Fulvi, TIFF).