ELEGIES
Director: Ann Hui. 101 minutes. Hong Kong. 2023. Documentary. Languages: Cantonese, Mandarin. Colour.
Official Selections: Hong Kong International Film Festival; Rotterdam International Film Festival; Busan International Film Festival 2023
The screening will be introduced by EAFFI programme curator Marie-Pierre Richard.
Celebrated Hong Kong New Wave auteur writer-director-producer, Ann Hui returns with a personal, evocative, joyful and beautiful documentary portrait of contemporary poets from Hong Kong. This is an ode to the city of Hong Kong in a state of transition, devoted to poets of the ‘old’ generation (born 1937–1952), through to the poets of today.
Filming conversations through personal encounters with Hong Kong’s most notable poets including Yam Gong, Wai Yuen, Chan Chi Tak, Deng Ah Lam, York Ma, Xi Xi and Leung Ping Kwan, Hui reveals the topography of contemporary poetry, while giving us glimpses of inner life in Hong Kong, with its many memories and ways of life. Subtle and graceful vignettes of everyday life unfold freely, bringing us poetic imagery and inspirational ideas.
(Marie-Pierre Richard)