It is the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and we are in a dusty provincial town in rural China, Wu Liang, who is 26, illiterate, intellectually disabled, and living with his parents, frets after his father catches Covid. A chance encounter with a Buddhist monk inspires in Liang a sincere desire to heal people though prayer but quarantine restrictions and people’s narrow-mindedness and cynicism stand in his way.

GONG Zelin shoots a cast of non-professional actors in a small-town setting to deliver a story of stifled desires and overlooked lives struggling to realise a heartfelt dream.
(Text by Jason Maher)