All My Sisters focuses for the most part of on two young women who happen to be the director's nieces (Film review)

  

Advertising for the 50th Hong Kong International 

Film Festival hanging on the railings of an overhead bridge  

 

All My Sisters (Austria-France-Germany-Iran, 2025) 

- Massoud Bakshi, director and co-producer (with five others)

- Part of the HKIFF's Documentary Competition program 

 

The first film of the 50th Hong Kong International Film Festival that I viewed 18 films ago was Woman and Child, an Iranian cinematic offering.  The final film of those I chose to watch was also hails from Iran.  (All My Sisters is officially listed as four country co-production but is very recognizably an Iranian work.)  

 

To some extent, this is not something that's extraordinary as the Hong Kong International Festival has long programmed from that Middle Eastern country (and, in fact, I'd go so far as to say that it's been a big champion of Jafar Panahi over the years.)  At the same time though, I figure this is also a reflection of Iran having been in the news in recent months (even before the Iran-USA War commenced); and the focus on Iranian women in the films (I think also of Past Future Continuous) selected for this edition of the HKIFF reflecting this.

 

Of course this is not to say that the likes of All My Sisters got selected by the Hong Kong International Film Festival as a "pity vote".  Because it genuinely is an interesting documentary work; one that is the result of filmmaker Massoud Bakshi training his camera on his two nieces for a couple of decades or so and then putting together home videos that, individually, can seem rather ordinary but collectively make for an interesting portrait of two sisters growing up and coming of age in Tehran under the rule of the Mullahs.

 

When we first see Mahya and Zahra in All My Sisters, they are sans hijab as they are still young -- and, as Massoud Bakshi stresses, in the company of family.  Even while it's clear that they are living in Iran, they still can seem like generic carefree preteens similar to girls in their age group in various other parts of the world as they happily listen to what's emanating from cassette players, playing with Barbies at home, and swinging on equipment in public playgrounds.

 

But at the first sign of puberty, the headscarfs get put on.  Also, their religious grandmother starts trying to get them more interested in the Quran and Islam in general.  And there is a distinct and growing sense that their lives will be more restricted and less carefree.  (It would have been interesting for there to have been a parallel coverage of Mahya and Zahra's male contemporaries.  But the glimpses we see of the men as well as boys, who can go about their lives with much less covering, already says quite a bit.)

 

Something that is stressed more than once in All My Sisters is that what's shown in the film is shown with the consent of Mahya and Zahra.  Which makes it really surprising, then, that we see them being among the Iranians who take part in the "Women, Life, Freedom" protests.

 

At the same time, this helps makes the title of the film make sense.  In that, for a good part of it, I thought it would have been more appropriately entitled "My Two Nieces".  But when Mahya and Zahra are depicted and looked upon as representative Iranian women, than the chosen title of All My Sisters makes quite the political statement about Iranian women and society as a while indeed.

 

My rating for this film: 7.         

Whispers in the Woods shows how precious and beautiful sightings of truly wildlife can be (Film review)

  

The kind of poster that makes me want to watch 

the documentary film it's for! :)

 

Whispers in the Woods (France, 2025) 

- Vincent Mournier, director, cinematographer (with Laurent Joffrion and Antoine Lavorel) and co-producer (with four others) 

- Part of the HKIFF's Documentary Competition program 

 

When I saw the poster for Whispers in the Woods, I got to thinking of Ildikó Enyedi's On Body and Soul (2017), a magical film with beautiful imagery involving a stag and a doe.  Ironically, I viewed Vincent Mournier's documentary less than 24 hours after viewing Enyedi's latest offering and found myself comparing it very favorably against Silent Friend! 

 

In fairness, Whispers in the Woods and Silent Friend are two very different works; not least since the former is a wildlife documentary and the latter a fictional work with flora as well as human characters.  This being said, I must say that I found myself far more mesmerised by Mournier's work than Enyedi's and also came away with a far greater appreciation of the wonders of nature too.

 

A personal offering that has him both in front of and behind the camera as well as directing and co-producing, Whispers in the Woods shows three generations of his family -- celebrated wildlife photographer Vincent himself, his father, Michel, and his teen-aged son, Simon -- sharing their love of nature, particularly the creatures, great and small, that dwell in the verdant forests of the Vosges in France, and how to look and listen for these wild things.          

 

At home out in the woods like the wildlife whose presence they very much appreciate catching precious sightings and sounds of, the Mourniers' respect for nature is a great contrast to such as the cruel shooters of elephants seen in Werner Herzog's Ghost Elephants (another nature documentary viewed at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival).  Recalling Herzog's offering once more: the Mourniers' uncanny ability to track down the wildlife that captivate them seems comparable to that of the expert trackers enlisted to look for the elusive eponymous elephants of that set-in-Africa documentary.

 

One evening in their cabin in the woods, Simon asks his grandfather what's his favourite wildlife spotting he's made.  Understandably, Michel has to pause to think before answering that it was when he a capercaillie spotted in the mist and appearing to him like a ghostly apparition.  Later, when it is revealed that this member of the grouse tribe is now extinct in France, the (re)viewer realizes how rare and precious this sighting this was; hence it being more treasured than sublime sights such as a doe, its young and a stag tranquilly crossing a silver-tinged river are that the Mourniers share with the viewers of Whispers in the Woods.  

 

Deciding that he would like his grandson to also have the experience of catching sight of a capercaillie, Simon decides to take Simon -- with Vincent going along too -- on a winter journey to Norway, where these non-migratory sedentary birds still are to be found.  It is a measure of how much they value their nature experiences that they are prepared to journey that far away from home and spend time out in snowy cold conditions to glimpse these rare birds.  And it is a measure of how successful the people behind Whispers in the Woods are at communicating how priceless such experiences are that it viewers will find it is perfectly understandable that the Mourniers would want to do so.

 

My rating for this film: 9. 

The alternative Silent Friend gets one looking at plants in different ways! (Film review)

 

The Hong Kong International Film Festival screening of 

Silent Friend that I attended had a post-screening Q&A

with its Hungarian director and Hong Kong star 

 

A more close-up shot of Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Ildikó Enyedi
 

Silent Friend (Germany-Hungary-France, 2025)

- Ildikó Enyedi, director and co-scriptwriter (with Tina Kaiser and Corinne Le Hong)

- Starring: Tony Leung Chiu-wai,  Luna Wedler, Enzo Brumm

- Part of the HKIFF's Galas program 

 

My paternal grandmother was a vegetarian while her husband was not. At a family dinner one day, after she tut-tutted over my grandfather enjoying eating meat, he asked her: "How do you know plants don't have feelings too?  They are living things too, after all!"    

 

For some reason, that conversation stuck with me all these years.  And I got to thinking about it again while viewing Silent Friend, Ildikó Enyedi's mystical-leaning film in which various plants prominently feature and (even) get mentioned in the end credits alongside the cinematic offering's human cast and crew.  This not least because I could imagine this alternative movie's director or at least one of the main human characters in this rather fanciful movie sharing my grandfather's views about flora!

 

Set on a Germany university's leafy campus, Silent Friend tells the story of a trio of individuals who share the same space at various points in time -- not with each other but a giant gingko tree that is lovingly lensed (and turns out to even have some "stunt doubles"!).  Tony Leung Chiu-wai (in his first ever European film appearance) plays his namesake, a Hong Kong neuroscientist who finds himself locked down on a near empty campus in the lockdown days of the Covid pandemic. Unable to work with his usual research subjects (human babies), he decides to conduct his research on brainwaves on a gingko tree -- and, in the process, attracts the attention and suspicion of a stranger (played by Sylvester Groth) who literally as well as metaphorically doesn't speak his language.

 

Although Tony does talk (including via video calls) to other humans (including a fellow scientist essayed by Léa Seydoux) from time to time, he seems on the introverted side.  This also is the case with Hannes (played by Enzo Brumm), a student at the same university in the segment of Silent Friend that is set in 1972.  And while he, too, encounters the gingko tree that Tony conducts experiments on, the plant that Hannes actually spends more time with -- and conducts his own experiments on, with truly startling results! -- is a potted geranium that belongs to his housemate-crush.

 

If truth be told, the section of Silent Friend that was set in 2020 seemed over indulgent at times while Hannes came across as rather weedy and was the least compelling to me of the film's three main human characters.  In contrast, I was consistently absorbed by the section of the movie that was set in 1908 and is centered on the first female student accepted into the university's biology department. 

 

Grete (portrayed by Luna Wedler, whose performance won the Marcello Mastrioanno award for Best Young Actor or Actress at the 2025 Venice Film Festival) impresses in an early scene when she is questioned by a sexist old male professor intent on humiliating her.  But it is after she takes on a job (in return for room and board) with a photographer and learns to use a camera that she truly blooms.  (I wouldn't be surprised if the decision to have this section of Silent Friend be in black and white came out of the photographs she shoots looking more arresting in black and white than colour.)

 

I don't think it'll surprise when I state that the best, downright exhilarating scenes in Silent Friend involve the humans in the presence of plants.  What may be a bit more unexpected though is my thinking that there actually is more than one silent friend in this movie; and that while they are indeed plants in the 2020 and 1972 sections, it seemed to me that in the 1908 section, Grete's silent friend may well have been her camera (which allows her to see and depict plants, and herself too, in new, creative ways)?!

 

My rating for this film: 6. 

Past Future Continuous may not be the documentary it's presented to be (Film review)

  

One of the posters that was part of the HKIFF's 

poster exhibition at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre

 

Past Future Continuous (Iran-Italy-Norway, 2025) 

- Firouzeh Khosrovani and Morteza Ahmadvand co-directors, and co-scriptwriters (with Naghmeh Samini)

- Part of the HKIFF's Documentary Competition program 

 

This deceptively straightforward entry in this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival's Documentary Competition was the winner of an award at last year's International Documentary Film Amsterdam (IDFA).  It also is described as a documentary on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) website, Letterboxd and elsewhere I've looked.

 

But something seems amiss when there are three scriptwriters along with two co-directors (USA-based Firouzeh Khosrovani, and Moretza Ahmadvand, who resides in Tehran, Iran) listed for Past Future Continuous but none of them have the same name as Maryam, the involuntary immigrant from Iran now teaching at a university somewhere in the USA, whose story is told (in first person narrative form) in the film.    

 

To be sure, it would be understandable if Maryam is not the real name of someone who has resorted to having closed circuit television cameras installed in her family home in order to be visually connected with her parents living thousands of miles away in a country it no longer is safe for her to return to.  Very sadly, there are many people, including Hongkongers, who can only see beloved family members on TV, computer and smartphone screens these days.  

 

I just wish it would be more clearly outlined if Maryam is a real person's pseudonym or fictional character since there is a whole world of a difference between watching something is reality versus fiction, however based-on-reality the presented fictionalised situations are.  And the truth of the matter is that the nagging possibility that the people we see on screen for the bulk of Past Future Continuous are actors playing parts rather than the actual parents of someone who clearly loves and misses them can be distracting -- and detract from what actually would be a genuine tragedy unfolding on the screen; one involving a lonely couple -- who no longer have guests in their home, the way they used to do so in their younger, pre-Iranian Revolution days -- growing older, frailer and ill before our eyes.

 

Alternatively, if Past Future Continuous were indeed taken as a realist work of fiction rather than documentary, I actually would have been more tolerant of the repeated images of a fluttering white dove that feature in more than one part of the film and looked upon them as lyrically poetic rather than aesthetically indulgent!  Either way though, it speaks volumes that so much is left unsaid in this enigmatic work where so many things (and people?) may not be all that they (initially) seem.

 

My rating for this film: 6.0    

Sorrows and Joys of a Middle-Aged Man is a film older than the People's Republic of China! (Film review)

  

I saw these ticketing machines at the HKIFF venues I went to

but I didn't actually see them being used that much (as my

sense is that most fest goers buy their tickets (way) in advance)! 

 

Sorrows and Joys of a Middle-Aged Man (China, 1949)

- Sang Hu, director 

- Starring: Shi Hui, Zhu Jiachen, Han Fei, Li Huanqing 

- Part of the HKIFF's Chinese-language Restored Classics program 

 

When I saw that the year that this film (whose 4K restoration was screened at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival) was made, I wondered if it was a pre- or post-Chinese Communist Revolution offering.  If it was the latter, I would not have elected to view it -- as I'm not a fan of Chinese propaganda movies.  However, it turned out to be the former -- and not only that but star a man who ended up being a victim of the Communists' Anti-Rightist Campaign that are officially stated to have involved the political persecution of more than 550,000 individuals (and unofficial estimates rise up to between 1 to 2 million).

 

One of the most highly regarded film folks of the "Second Golden Age" of Chinese Cinema, Shi Hui, plays Chen Shaochang, a middle-aged school principal who is seen visiting his beloved wife's grave on Ching Ming (Grave-Sweeping Day) with his three children.  Enough years have passed since their mother's death that the three children don't seem to take a visit to pay respects to their deceased mother all that seriously.  In contrast, Minhua, the daughter of a friend of his, caught his attention as a result of her loudly weeping at her mother's grave nearby.

 

To a large extent, Shaochang's sorrows can be traced less to his having prematurely lost his wife and more to the actions of his children, especially after they grow into adulthood.  In particular, the eldest of his children, Jianzhong (essayed as an adult by Han Fei), turns out to be quite the piece of work. An ambitious banker who marries his boss' elder daughter (played by Li Huanqing), he seeks to live in the luxurious style that he thinks is more befitting of a wealthy individual than a humble school principal or his son -- and this includes not only doing such as moving into a mansion but also making his father retire from his respectable but low paying position at the elementary school he founded.

 

At this point, I was thinking that Sorrows and Joys of a Middle-Aged Man seemed to be a film the Communists would approve of; what with its taking the side of the humble, poorer man rather than that of the rich folks in the story.  At the same time, far from being an entirely serious work, the mildly satirical movie also has some light-hearted moments and quirky takes that make it so that this (re)viewer didn't feel like it was trying to be over-ideological and -moralistic.  Also, when seeing Shaochan seeking to battle others to try to get onto over-crowded public transport, one may well see Jianzhong's point about how it's unbecoming for his father to regularly do this!

 

As a comedic montage showed though, Shaochang was not deriving much joy from taking up the hobbies (among them calligraphy, stamp-collecting and birdwatching!) that retired, older folks were supposed to enjoy.  So, clearly, that had to come from elsewhere; and included seeing how, despite her sad childhood made sadder by having a step-mother who bullied her, Minhua (portrayed as an adult by Zhu Jiachen -- and who, in reality, was only 9 years older than Shi Hui!) managed to grow into a lovely young woman who became a teacher at Shaochang's school and then his successor as principal.

 

There also are twists in the third act and coda of this move that give Shaochang great joy.  Actually pretty predictable, they also can shock one another level -- in that they are kind of things that might not be approved of so much these days but make more sense back when the film was made!      

 

On a historical/cultural note: it's worth noting the choices of life partner that the Father of Modern China, Sun Yat-sen, made -- and also the love interests of this movie's (un-credited/supposed) scriptwriter, Eileen Chang.  On a related cultural note: it seems (then) that generation gaps between parents and their children may loom large but less so those between non-relatives, even a young person and someone of the same generation as their parents!

 

My rating for this film: 8.     

Spare Queens is a bowling- and female-centric movie with plenty of drama and action to spare (Film review)

  

Key cast and crew at the world premiere of Spare Queens

 

The movie's two leading ladies

 

Spare Queens (Hong Kong, 2026)

- Tommy Tom, director and co-scriptwriter (with Lee Po-chi)

- Starring: Stephy Tang, Chrissie Chau, Anson Kong, Adam Pak

- Part of the HKIFF's Galas program 

 

In bowling, a "spare" is awarded after all the pins that were not hit by the first bowling attempt are hit with the second ball.  While it doesn't score as high as a "strike" (when all 10 pins are knocked down in the first roll), it's still pretty good.  And when a "spare" is made after the first ball left a 7-10 split (where the corner pins on opposite sides are left), it is quite the achievement indeed!

 

For his feature film debut, director-scriptwriter Tommy Tam chose to delve into the world of a favourite sport of his: one that both females and males can play and excel; and Hongkongers are competitive in. (A bit of trivia: last year's International Bowling Federation World Cup and World Championships took place in Hong Kong.)  And while Hong Kong has seen a number of sports movies in recent years (including football-themed Pass and Goal (2025), volleyball themed Life Must Go On (2022) and running-themed Zero to Hero (2021)), Spare Queens might well be Hong Kong's first ever bowling-themed movie!  

 

In addition, as its title indicates, Spare Queens is as female-centric as it is bowling-themed.  For while MIRROR band member Anson Kong appears as a talented male bowler whose style is rough but still can produce results and actor-model Adam Pak has a not insignificant part to play in proceedings, it's the film's two lead actresses who have the meatiest roles -- as former bowling rivals who return from retirement to play for the Hong Kong team and bid to help it qualify for the world championships.  (Yes, this is a film about second chances (and what people do with them).  And no, it's not much of a spoiler to point this out.  If so, they shouldn't have had the word "Spare" in the film's title!)   

 

For those who still know Chrissie Chau best as a "lang mo" (pseudo model) or Stephy Tang as a member of a girl group: rest assured that these two now 40-something-year-old entertainers have come a long way from there and are outstanding on their own in this movie and even better when on the screen together.  Also, that it looks to have been an inspired move on the part of director Tom to get both of these actresses to play against type and have their characters not only have personality clashes but also a relationship that's affected by their different social status and family background.

 

Other nice touches involve the characters of Chau, Tang and Kong being given distinct bowling styles that actually add to the story as well as are fascinating to see.  All in all, I found Spare Queens' dramatic scenes absorbing and its sporting action very entertaining; this from someone who's not spent much time at all in bowling alleys, never mind watching and following bowling as a competitive sport!

 

Cinematographer Chris Lee sure kept things interesting by utilizing quite the creative array of unusual camera angles for the bowling scenes.  Credit too to director Tom for having made good use of his animation and visual effects producer to produce a winning work that looked as well as was substantively good on the film's modest HK$8 million budget!

 

My rating for this film: 7.5          

How to Divorce During the War highlights how families can be torn apart, sometimes because of politics (Film review)

Display of posters of films, including that for How to Divorce 

During the War, screened at the 50th Hong Kong

International Film Festival 

 

  

Lithuanian filmmaker Andrius Blaževičius at the Q&A

session after a Hong Kong International Film Festival 

screening of his film 

 

How to Divorce During the War (Lithuania-Luxembourg-Ireland, 2025)

- Andrius Blaževičius, director-scriptwriter

- Starring: Marius Repšys, Žygimantė Elena Jakštaitė, Amelija Adomaitytė

- Part of the HKIFF's Young Cinema Competition (World) program 

 

I don't know if others feel the same way about this but How to Divorce During the War strikes me as a title for an absurdist comedy rather than, say, an utterly serious drama.  As it turned out though, there is very little to laugh about in this work, set in 2022 Lithuania, about a nuclear family whose world is turned upside down by the parents splitting around the time that the Russians attacked Ukraine.

 

Vitas (played by Marius Repšys) is a filmmaker who spends more time daily cleaning the family home and being the main caregiver for pre-teen daughter Dovile (essayed by Amelija Adomaityte) than on the latest script that he's working on but has writer's block over.  In the eyes of his high-flying media exec spouse, Marija (Žygimantė Elena Jakštaitė), he is a shadow of the interesting, intelligent man that she married -- and so she wants out.  (She's also in a lesbian relationship with a colleague who seems to have egged her to divorce her husband.)

 

Since their house was in Marija's name, she had the legal right to ask Vitas to move out of it.  Which he reluctantly did.  Their daughter Dovile stays with Marija while Vitas moves back in with his parents, who he finds increasingly hard to get along with; especially after he finds -- via their doing such as spouting pro-Russian propaganda about the Ukraine war -- that they do not share his political views, which are more aligned with that of his now-ex-wife along with their daughter.

 

Consequently, Vitas finds himself part of not just one but two families at war with themselves at a low point in his professional life.  And, truly, it's hard not to feel for him.  And, also, Doville.  Who doesn't say much but watches, observes and knows far more -- about the family situation and also what's going on in the world at large -- than her parents and other adults may realise.  

 

On the other hand, Marija is not always as easy to have sympathy for; and is someone whose actions I sometimes could understand but I disagreed with at others.  The most complex character in the movie, it is through her that one is shown the domestic and internal conflicts that can arise from a woman becoming the main provider of the family -- something that still is the exception rather than the rule.  Also the conflict that a working person has with regards to how much one should -- or, maybe the better word is can -- professionally and financially sacrifice for one's ideological beliefs.  

 

My sense is that many Hongkongers who viewed this film will most relate to Vitas: particularly, his experiences with his parents.  Because of what happened here in 2019 and after China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong (in 2020), and how what happened were covered and portrayed by media on different sides of the political equation, conflicts (have) ensued between many parents and their (adult) offspring; and resulted in the breaking up of families -- or, at the very least, an increasing number of (adult) offspring deciding to move out of family abodes to live on their own.    

 

Part of me wanted to ask How to Divorce During the War's director-scriptwriter, Andrius Blaževičius, whether he was aware of Hong Kong's situation during the Q&A that was held after the screening I attended of his film.  Also, whether he knew that many Hongkongers feel a kinship with Ukrainians (and why).  But while I didn't, I do get the sense that he wasn't entirely clueless about why this sensitive dramatic offering is one that can resonate with people here even though they live thousands of kilometers away from Lithuania and Ukraine.

 

My rating for this film: 7.0