The latest film from the director of The Last Family (2016) and Leave No Traces (2021) is a sensitive and deeply moving portrayal of the aftermath of unbearable loss. Jurek (Marcin Dorociński, The Queen’s Gambit) is a widower whose world revolves around teenage daughter Masia (Natalia Bui). Although they live in Poland, Masia cherishes and observes the traditions of her late Chinese mother. When she too is taken from him, her grandfather Ben (Daxing Zhang), the father-in-law with whom Jurek has a strained relationship, comes from China to Poland to help lay Masia to rest. The two clash over Ben’s determination to perform a ghost marriage, a ‘minghun’, so that Masia might find balance and happiness in the afterlife. Dorociński and Zhang excel as the two lonely men, each trying in his own way to find peace, and the strength to carry on.

Notes by Kevin Coyne

Screening as part of IFI Kinopolis Polish Film Festival.