Hong Kong veteran filmmaker Stanley Kwan Kam-pang has thrown his weight behind “A Stranger at My Door,” the sophomore fiction feature from director Zheng Lu Xinyuan.
The film is selected for the Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), the project market that operates concurrently with Hong Kong FilMart.
The drama, which carries a budget of $1.1 million, explores themes of trauma and healing through the story of Lee, an amateur film director working on a project about her late mother’s sexual abuse while navigating the end of a long-term relationship. The film, set to be shot in Putonghua and English, follows Lee as she finds solace in Clément, a French composer, while dealing with the haunting presence of her mother’s ghost. The production is looking for funds, co-producers, sales agents and pre-sales at HAF.
Zheng’s debut feature, “The Cloud in Her Room,” won the Tiger Award at International Film Festival Rotterdam and two Golden Firebird awards at the Hong Kong International Film Festival in 2020, while her essay film “Jet Lag” premiered in the Forum section of the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival and received a special mention at Festival des 3 Continents.
“After reading the materials Xinyuan handed me, I felt that it was a good script,” Kwan told Variety. “After reading a script, I like the project and have feelings for it, that is the most important thing. For this reason, I agreed to back ‘A Stranger at My Door,’ there is no other reason.”
Kwan added, “I think I have enough confidence in my judgment, and I believe that young directors who can write such scripts should also have enough confidence. A good script is the key to giving audiences a reason to watch their movies.”
On the genesis of the project, Zheng said: “Certain unspoken truth, after a period of time, becomes buried and irrelevant. Yet, to someone, it was significant. When I find myself part of this ignorance, that frustration makes me doubt what some of us have been through.”
The director hopes the film will forge unique connections with audiences. “If in the future, the film will make someone at some corner of the world a bit less lonely, I would be glad,” Zheng added.
Zheng Lu Xinyuan, Stanley Kwan Kam-pang
HAF
