From Dawn to Dawn

From Viennale

In her debut feature, Xisi Sofia Ye Chen paints an intimate portrait of her older brother A Wen, a businessman whose youth in the Chinese gangs of Barcelona echoes the Hong Kong gangster films they watched together as children. Weaving together his everyday life with fictional elements, she retraces his story while subtly exploring the invisible legacy of migration. The filmmaker and her brother were born to Chinese parents who rebuilt their lives in Spain. A Wen’s criminal past, his struggle with depression and his uncertain spiritual quest become the prism through which an entire generation emerges, caught between cultural fantasy, displacement and the search for identity. Chen’s static, unobtrusive camera observes with the tenderness and quiet curiosity of a younger sister still trying to grasp the mystery of someone both deeply familiar and forever elusive. From contemplative landscapes in China to the immersive neon lit interiors of homes, karaoke bars and back rooms of restaurants that have become the new intimate territories of this Chinese community, the film sheds light on a cultural universe rarely portrayed on screen while composing a moving portrait of family and the sense of belonging. (Nepheli Gambade)