The moments of care-free childhood before society’s expectations take their toll are the focus of Dongnan Chen’s second feature, Whispers in Maywhich will have its world premiere on March 15 in the main DOX:Award competition of CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival.
Described as a “time capsule” that captures the last moments of childhood, just before reality takes hold, it follows three Chinese girls on a road trip filled with natural beauty, discussions of hopes and expectations, and fleeting moments of tenderness.
Qihuo has a secret. She has just had her first period. This means she is prepared for a “skirt-changing” ceremony, a traditional coming-of-age ritual, signifying that she is no longer a child, but “a woman bound by the societal demands of marriage and career,” according to the film’s synopsis. “With her parents away as migrant workers and her grandfather recently deceased, Qihuo and her two best friends set out on a road trip to buy a skirt for her rite of passage.”
qin (Singing in the wildshorts 14 panels and Road from Xinjiang) blends raw documentary with an unscripted flight of fancy to craft “a world inhabited by girls that transcends social norms.”
Whispers in May It is produced by Muyi Film’s Jia Zhao, alongside Chen’s Tail Bite Tail Films in co-production with Malin Hüber for her film in Sweden and Heejung Oh for Seesaw Pictures in South Korea. Luke Brawley’s Indox handles the festivals.
“When I first traveled to Liangshan, I wasn’t planning to make a film, until a local teacher showed me some of her students’ writings,” Chen explains. “One line in particular stuck with me: ‘I have had many wishes granted, but none have ever come true.’” Later that day, I met its author, Chihu. At 14, she was at a point where childhood was beginning to slip away. The world was ready to name her — a woman, a wife, a migrant worker — before she could choose her own path.
This became an inspiration for Chen. “I wanted us to use the film to create an alternative story, a dream that paralleled her real life and explored what she couldn’t have done otherwise,” she recalls. “Together, we began the journey. The film emerged from close collaboration and improvisation with the girls, imagining a space where they could simply exist in all their joys and sorrows, free from judgement, definition or expectations. They were just children, navigating the complexities of life, oscillating between reality and fable.”
Producer Zhao highlights: “What moved me about the film was Dongnan’s dedication to portraying this quiet transition, a delicate distance between girlhood and femininity. She weaves in fleeting, almost ungraspable moments of youth after a girl experiences her first menstruation, a period of transition that is both personal and deeply universal. Whispers in May It embodies the courageous vision of a female filmmaker in China, where producing independent documentaries is a risky endeavor. As a European-Chinese producer, I am deeply committed to amplifying such bold, artistically driven stories across borders.
He said enough. After all, this is a girls’ story. and THR An exclusive trailer for Whispers in May.
Ready to run away with the girls? Cinematically, of course! Maybe you’ll think about what to suggest to them when someone asks: “Do you want to grow up?” Here are the first sights and sounds Whispers in May.
