Eröffnungsgala Identities: Saving Face

SAVING FACE
USA 2005, 97 min, amerikanisch/mandarin OmeU
Regie: Alice Wu
in Anwesenheit der Regisseurin

Wil and her Ma come from a traditional Chinese family in Flushing, Queens. At first glance, Wil is the picture of a the perfect traditional daughter – a successful surgeon who is dutiful to her widowed mother. The only thing is that Wil dresses a little, well, not right. Infact, at the weekly Chinese singles dance, Wil seems not be interested in men at all. It turns out that she is secretly struggling to land her first lebian date with Vivian, a gorgeous ballet dancer. But just when things are looking up, the 48-year-old Ma lands on her doorstep annoucning that she is pregnant and moving in. Ma has a secret of her own, refusing to name the father for fear of disgracing herself in the eyes of her traditional family. The emotional tones of desire, humiliation, jubilation and confusion are richly inhabited by a wonderful cast led by the radiant Joan Chen. With Saving Face, Wu and her team have ultimately crafted an infectiously warm, sexy, and heartfelt tale about what it means to live life honestly. (Shari Frilot, Sundance Film Festival 2005)