As a second-generation member of a Chinese immigrant family settled in Spain, the director takes up a camera to look into the life of her older brother, A Wen. As the saying goes, "family is the closest stranger in the world," and the sister’s gaze crafts a portrait of a figure at once unfamiliar and complex. Spanning from a temple to a karaoke room, the film’s journey fully embraces the extreme dualities of A Wen: a soul seeking inner peace through meditation versus a past entangled in gambling, violence, and shootings as a gangster; the everyday routine of an entrepreneur and family patriarch versus a life spent hanging around with his street brothers. Without attempting to define him by either extreme, the film quietly observes these contradictory portraits. This gaze soon expands into a broader narrative on immigrant life and second-generation identity. It is an impressive documentary shaped by a sister’s camera, looking upon a brother who is family yet a stranger, the closest person to her yet ultimately someone beyond comprehension. Winner of the Grand Prize at the prestigious Swiss documentary film festival Visions du Reel.
Born in Barcelona in 1994. She grew up in a family of Chinese immigrants who had settled in Barcelona in the post-Olympic era, moving between four languages: Qingtianese, Mandarin, Catalan, and Spanish. After studying Humanities, she completed a Master′s in Creative Documentary at Pompeu Fabra University. Following the short film Xiaoqiang′s Daydream (2020), she directed her first feature documentary, From Dawn to Dawn, which chronicles her brother′s life. The film portrays a portrait of her brother "A Wen," in which a gangster past and a search for spiritual redemption coexist amid the uprootedness of Barcelona′s Chinese community. It was completed with support including the Márgenes Work Award, the Lau Haizetara Forum Award, Zinebi Networking, and D′A Final Cut, and screened at Doclisboa, the Triana Film Festival, and elsewhere. It won the Grand Jury Prize in the International Feature Competition at the 2026 Visions du Réel festival.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
