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Jianjie (JJ) Lin's debut feature “Brief History of a Family” stood out in the programming at Sundance this year. The Chinese-Danish co-production – one of this year's nominees in the World Cinema – Dramatic competition – surrenders to ambiguity. Unlike the many straightforward narratives at this year's edition, the film remains mum on who's on the side of good and evil – and perhaps, that underlines the thrill of the movie.

“A Brief History of a Family” premiered at Sundance 2024, and will play in the Panorama of the 74th edition of Berlinale. World sales is managed by Films Boutique and the screening schedule is available here.

Here, the spoiled Tu Wei (Muran Lin) lives a happy, upper middle class life with his two parents (Ke-Yu Guo and Feng Zu). Things begin to change, however, when he takes a high school classmate, Yan Shuo (Xilun Sun) under his wing after an accident at a basketball court.

Films Boutique has closed a raft of deals on the Chinese movie “Brief History of a Family,” which will play at the Berlinale in the Panorama section.

Chinese filmmaker Lin Jianjie‘s feature debut, “Brief History of a Family” premiered at Sundance and will be screening for buyers at the EFM as well.

Films Boutique has sold the movie to Benelux (September Films), Italy (Movies Inspired) and Spain (Karma Films).

The drama is set in the aftermath of an incident at the high school attended by Wei, an outgoing only son from a middle-class family, and Shuo, his quiet, perceptive classmate. Wei soon introduces his friend to his father, a cell biologist, and his mother, a former flight attendant. Learning that Shuo comes from a troubled background, Wei’s parents welcome this boy to spend more time in their home. Shuo slowly integrates himself into Wei’s family life and...

Jianjie Lin’s Brief History of a Family is an immaculate sculpture, one of those art-film thrillers in which every element of every frame is under profound control. There’s no stray detail here, no spontaneous behavioral business for the audience to discover for itself.

The risk of this sort of film is lifelessness, as in any number of thrillers released each year by A24. But the potential benefit is a heightened suspense achieved by our implicit understanding that the filmmakers have the means and ability to do whatever they please. You’re in their hands, and they could be ready to work you over. Lin achieves and sustains this tension, as his eerie, underpopulated frames and pregnant foreshadowing create an understated unease.

Brief History of a Family opens with a medium shot of a teenage boy, Yan Shuo (Xilun Sun), attempting to do pull-ups on a playground. Shuo is...

Chinese filmmaker Lin Jianjie’s debut feature “Brief History of a Family,” which is being sold by Films Boutique, has debuted its trailer (below), following its world premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section of the Sundance Film Festival.

The film, which will make its European premiere in the Panorama program of the Berlin Film Festival, was received warmly by Variety critic Carlos Aguilar. In the review, Aguilar says the suspenseful drama was “elevated by its consistent visual inventiveness.” He adds that although at first it seems to be the story of a “cunning infiltrator wreaking havoc in an unsuspecting household,” it then “reveals itself as a tale of wish fulfillment for everyone involved.” Aguilar says that it is this approach which “turns Lin’s debut into an engrossing brain-tickler.”

The drama is put in motion by an incident at the high school attended by Wei, an outgoing only son from a middle-class family,...

Elevated by its consistent visual inventiveness, Chinese writer-director Jianjie Lin’s suspenseful drama “Brief History of a Family” could appear, at first glance, as a clear-cut case of a cunning infiltrator wreaking havoc in an unsuspecting household. Yet the closer we observe, the more it reveals itself as a tale of wish fulfillment for everyone involved. No doubt comparisons to “Saltburn,” “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” or “The Talented Mr. Ripley” will abound, but what Lin conceived is far more subcutaneous, with a sobering tone and disinterested in building up to a grand plot twist — though the resolution is unexpected.

Hit with a basketball while doing pull-ups, 15-year-old Yan Shuo (Xilun Sun) injures his leg. As an apologetic gesture, the guilty culprit, Tu Wei, a fellow classmate from an affluent family, invites Shuo to play video games and to stay over for dinner. Mr. and Mrs. Tu react, impressed...

Children often complain about not being able to choose their parents, but the opposite is true as well, and rarely explored in fiction with the elegance and pithiness of Jianjie Lin’s directorial debut Brief History of a Family. Set in modern China, where the emerging middle class is trying to form an identity, the film presents us with two sets of characters whose stories become intertwined in unexpectedly powerful ways.

We first meet Yan Shuo (Xilun Sun) as he’s literally hanging for dear life while attempting a pull-up in the schoolyard. When he falls and hurts his knee, he’s taken to the nurse by Wei (Muran Lin), a fellow schoolmate who pities him. The two become fast friends, and soon Wei invites Yan Shuo over to play video games and talk about their lives.

Both boys––products of the controversial one-child policy used to control overpopulation in...

The 40th edition of Sundance Film Festival kicks off today, and notably, queer and Himalaya-themed films take over the Asian/Asian diaspora slate of the mountain festival. In previous years, Sundance has been a frontier for Asian diaspora films. Last year alone saw a full slate of Asian diaspora films, with “Past Lives” (Celine Song), “Shortcomings” (Randall Park), “The Persian Version” (Maryam Keshavarz), and more, among others – there are considerably less Asian American films in the primary competition. This year, in the US Dramatic Competition, only one film, “Didi (弟弟)” by Sean Wang stands out amid the crowd.

Films about the Himalayas have taken center-stage in the World Cinema Competitions, however, with three titles this year: “Girls will be Girls” (Shuchi Talati), “Agent of Happiness” (Arun Bhattarai), and “Nocturnes” (Anirban Dutta). Queer Asian diaspora cinema is front and center this year as well, with “Layla” (Amrou Al-Khadi) and “Desire Lines...

Daniel Hoesl’s Veni Vidi Vici, Klaudia Reynicke’s Reinas and Thea Hvistendahl’s Handling the Undead are among the ten titles selected for the needle in a haystack section of the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. Here are the globe-trotting titles:

Brief History of a Family / China, France, Denmark, Qatar — A middle-class family’s fate becomes intertwined with their only son’s enigmatic new friend in post one-child policy China, putting unspoken secrets, unmet expectations, and untended emotions under the microscope. Cast: Feng Zu, Keyu Guo, Xilun Sun, Muran Lin. World Premiere.…...