LILTING (Canadian Premiere)

Dir. Hong Khaou

UK 2014 (86:00)

Staggering from loss after the recent death of his lover Kai, Richard (Skyfall's Ben Whishaw) reaches out to Kai’s mother Junn (Crouching Tiger’s Cheng Pei Pei). Kai was Junn’s lifeline to the world; she relied on him for everything, but despite this enforced intimacy, he never came out to her and Junn remains fiercely critical of Richard through a fugue of maternal jealousy and denial. Since they share no common language, Richard hires a translator to facilitate communication, and the two improbable relatives attempt to reach across a chasm of misunderstanding through their memories of Kai.

Lilting is a perceptive meditation on the path to connection between two human souls and reveals that what separates us can also bind us together.

Screening as part of Inside Out's Four-Play Screening Series at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.