In her masterfully constructed short The Other Side of the Mountain, Yumeng He, a Chinese filmmaker based in Berlin, follows her father, Cheng He, as he returns to his childhood home in the Chongqing district of Southwestern China. Honouring the request of his 90-year-old mother, who’s unable to make the journey herself, Cheng reconnects with her friends, sketches the often unrecognisable cityscape around him, and visits the 816 Nuclear Military Plant – once a secret Cold War facility where thousands toiled and at least 100 workers died, now a tourist attraction – where he comments that ‘beneath the surface of fast development is fast forgetting’. Yumeng melds personal and national history in her film, with breathtaking cinematography that frames her father navigating the streets of his youth, shaped by the tides of history and time.
Cheng visits his hometown, awash in the tides of history and time
Director: Yumeng He
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