Synopsis
Bends straddles the Hong Kong-Shenzhen border and tells the story of Anna, an affluent housewife and Fai, her chauffeur, and their unexpected friendship as they each negotiate the pressures of Hong Kong life and the city’s increasingly complex relationship to mainland China. Their two lives collide in a common space, the car.

Program Note
The film’s original Cantonese title translates as ‘crossing the border’. This debut film from Hong Kong’s rising talent Flora LAU was
 screened in the ‘Un Certain Regard’ section at the 66th Cannes. LAU presents a realistic visualization of the issues concerning
 Hong Kong and the mainland. The two are separated by a new type of border that has replaced the old one, ever since Hong Kong
 was returned to China.

 A young couple lives in an impoverished neighborhood with their little girl. The only two people seen going in and out of the
 apartment are the husband and the daughter, while the wife stays indoors, not even opening the window on a sweltering day. The
 reason she is forced to hide inside the apartment is because she is pregnant with her second baby. The one-child policy is strictly
 enforced by the Chinese government; therefore, it is illegal to give birth to a second child.

 The husband’s workplace is across the sea in Hong Kong. There he works as a chauffeur to a wealthy housewife called Anna
 LI. Anna’s pampered life, which is surrounded by expensive artworks, extravagant clothes, and grandiose furniture that fill her
 luxurious apartment, suddenly falls apart when her bankrupt husband disappears. All of a sudden, she is thrown into poverty. We
 are faced with the question of how to cross the border between the emptiness of materialistic wealth and the desperation of the
 young couple who must find a way to give birth to their second child in Hong Kong. [LEE Angela]