Zheng Lu Xinyuan | 2020 | China | 98’ | EN subs

Our monthly collaboration with Asian Movie Night carefully selects films to attract a diverse audience. We especially focus on bringing films directed by female and queer directors of Asia.

Zheng Lu Xinyuan is a filmmaker based in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. The Cloud in Her Room is her debut feature film about a 22-year-old girl, Muzi, who wanders through a city that is constantly vanishing and changing. There is no place to attach oneself to. The film avoids a linear timeline as if it is shot to follow Muzi's stream of consciousness. It attempts to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through Muzi’s mind. This way of filming shows Zheng Lu's point of departure as she says: "...feelings often only exist for a very short moment. They also shift. That kind of fluidity of what we choose to believe, follow, and hold on to, is what I’m interested in.” The plot of this film is slippery, yet many scenes remain in the mind like a stream.