额吉 | My Mongolian Mother

The film is a touching epic drama based on a true story. In the 1960s, about 3,000 Chinese orphans were sent to Inner Mongolia. In the Xilingol grassland, Qiqigema Erji adopted Chen Chen and Yu Sheng even though her husband disapproved. The children grew up as Mongolian nomads. But 20 years later, upon hearing the news that biological parents were looking for their children, Chen Chen left for Shanghai in the hope of meeting his parents. Yu Sheng finally did meet his parents and faced a choice as to where he wanted to live.

Directed by Cai Ning | Starring : Renhua Na, Tumenbayaer, Rifu Bao, Ririgui, Haburi | Presented at Pusan Film Festival, Fajr Film Festival

季风中的马 | Season of the Horse

Under the encouragement of the Chinese government, the traditional way of life of the nomads of the Mongolian plains change. Once a culture with a great emphasis on raising horses on the grassy plains, they are encouraged to move into the cities to work as industrial workers. However, one family tries to resist this change, trying to raise money to send their child to school by selling yogurt. Unfortunately, this is hardly sufficient and they are forced to sell their beloved horses.

Directed by Cai Ning | Starring : Renhua Na, Cai Ning, Lantian Chang, Agudamu | Presented at Durban Film Festival, Hawaii Film Festival, Pusan Film Festival, Bangkok Film Festival

美丽上海 | Shanghai Story

The Kang family was once well-off, owning a garden house in Shanghai, until catastrophe befell them in the late 1960s. The four adult children of the family are now scattered and residing in three places: Shanghai, Inner Mongolia and San Francisco. When the mother is suddenly hospitalized, the children return to see her. The family reunion, however, is anything but a happy event: the four siblings are unable to even have one peaceful dinner together, and the mother herself has serious matters to settle with all of them.

Directed by Xiaolian Peng | Starring : Joey Wang, Zhenyao Zheng, Youliang Zhao, Josephine Koo, Yuanzheng Feng | Presented at Shanghai Film Festival

黑骏马 | A Mongolian Tale

Bayinbulag and Somiya are brought up, from a young age, as brother and sister by their adoptive grandmother. The three live happily in a yurt on the Mongolian steppes. Just before Bayinbulag is to leave for the city, to be trained as a vet, the grandmother suggests that Bayinbulag and Somiya should eventually marry. Bayinbulag, now training to be a musician, stays away for long periods of time without communicating with Somiya. He finally comes back expecting to marry her.

Directed by Fei Xie | Starring : Renhua Na, Tengger, Dalarsurong, Aojirdai, Ganghulag | Presented at Montréal Film Festival

湘女萧萧 | A Girl From Hunan

China, 1900. Xiaoxiao, a girl of about 12, comes to a mountain village for an arranged marriage with a two-year-old boy, Chunguan. Strict clan rules govern all behaviors. She becomes her husband’s nanny (he calls her “sister”). Soon, Huagou, a local peasant, takes notice of Xiaoxiao, singing suggestive songs as they work and sending her compliments via the boy. At about the same time, Xiaoxiao sees “girl students” in the nearby town: young women her age who have friends who are boys, who read, who experience freedom. Xiaoxiao and Huagou begin a passionate affair, and, to her horror, she gets pregnant. Does death at the hands of the clan elders await her, or sale into slavery?

Directed by Fei Xie | Starring : Renhua Na, Xiaoguang Deng, Zongxiang Guan, Yu Zhang, Qing Lin | Presented at Cannes Film Festival