Fireside

In the winter of 1998, sixteen-year-old Hanyu Liu returned to his hometown with his parents to run a mutton restaurant.

The subtle tension between his father and an old friend, coupled with his own growing closeness to a new companion, slowly unveiled hidden fissures beneath the family’s seemingly tranquil surface.

As the boy’s first inklings of desire intertwined with the unspoken past of his father’s generation, that late night gathered around the wooden table laden with mutton dishes began to radiate an unsettling warmth.

Directed by Xiaopei Wang (China)