“I’ve made many wishes, but none have ever come true.” That line, written by a teenage girl in China’s remote Liangshan region, became the starting point for “Whispers in May,” the hybrid documentary by Emmy-nominated Chinese director Dongnan Chen, which will world premiere in the main competition at the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival, also known as Cph:dox.
The doc – which Chen describes as a “reluctant coming-of-age film” – follows Qihuo, a 14-year-old girl who has just had her first menstruation, on a road trip with two close friends. Their goal is to buy Qihuo a skirt for the traditional “Changing skirt” ceremony, a rite of passage marking the transition to womanhood for Nuosu women in that part of China.
Many children there grow up largely without their parents, who leave to find work in distant cities. During the week, they typically live at school while extended family members…
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.imdb.com ’
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