SUBURBAN BIRDS

Xiahao (Mason Lee) is a land surveyor investigating mysterious sinkholes opening up around an abandoned suburb of Hangzhou. In an elementary school, he finds the diary of a student, also named Xiahao (Gong Zihan), who chronicles his group of friends and their wanderings in the countryside, until his friends start disappearing one by one. Xiahao the surveyor starts to find uncanny parallels between the diary and his own life. A coming-of-age story told through the bittersweet half-life of memory, Suburban Birds is an arthouse hit based on debut director Qiu Sheng’s own childhood. The film was named Best Feature Film at China’s FIRST International Film Festival.