In post-one-child policy China, a middle-class family welcomes their only son’s enigmatic new friend into their home. What begins as an act of kindness soon unearths long-buried tensions, as hidden secrets and unspoken emotions rise to the surface, challenging the family’s delicate balance. Lin Jianjie’s striking debut transforms a seemingly ordinary family drama into a gripping, unsettling psychological thriller, one that reflects the contradictions of modern life with chilling precision.

Reviews

‘It’s so exquisitely balanced that it’s able to keep reconfiguring itself with the merest breeze into a whole new arrangement of shapes that’s just as pleasing and abstract as the last.’
★★★★★
Leslie Felperin, The Guardian