In Love We Trust

Colour, 35 mm
China, 2007, 115 min
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

Little Hehe has grown up with her mother Mei Zhu and the good-natured Lao Xie. The little girl is showing signs of a serious ailment, and when it proves to be leukaemia, for which she will need a bone marrow transplant, it changes not only the lives of Hehe, her mother and stepfather, but also those of her real father and his new partner as well. The help the sick child needs suddenly requires a joint decision on their parts, but are the ideal conditions there to make it? While the scenario is essentially complicated by geographical distance and a Chinese family policy that disadvantages couples with more than one child, director and screenwriter Wang Xiaoshuai tries to set a universal tone with a tale which concentrates more on the expression of parental and romantic love, and the commitment that accompanies it. For its focused screenplay in which everything has its own precise role – as in the lives of the protagonists – the film was awarded a Silver Bear at the Berlin IFF.

About the director

Wang Xiaoshuai (b. 1966, Shanghai, China) belongs to the so-called “sixth generation” of Chinese directors. After graduating from the Beijing Film Academy he debuted with the story of two friends and artists called The Days (Dongchun de rizi, 1993). In the independent film Frozen (Jidu hanleng, 1996) he was credited as Wu Ming. The film So Close to Paradise (Biandan, guniang, 1995, released in 1998) was heavily censored before its limited release in China. Beijing Bicycle (Shiqi sui de dan che, 2001) received the Jury Grand Prix at the Berlin IFF and was screened in Karlovy Vary, as was Wang’s film Drifters (Er di, 2003). Shanghai Dreams (Qing hong, 2005) was awarded the Jury Prize in Cannes. In Love We Trust is the director’s ninth feature film.