Boxing Day

IN COMPETITION

On a quiet, ordinary shift, Nurse Cecily tunes in to her favourite patient Ahno’s boxing match on the radio, days after he has been discharged. Around her, the ward hums with its usual mischief: the one who sneaks a drink behind her back; the secret sweethearts; the patient who struck the wall out of despair; beds sprinkled with stickers and the faint trace of blood. As the fight nears its end, Cecily’s worry grows — until a Mercury Man drifts into her afternoon dream, his wounds sprouting dandelions.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Xiaoyi Zhong is a writer–director and visual artist from Guangdong and Chongqing, China. She first studied physics at Peking University, drawn by a fascination with the universe, before turning to art and is now pursuing an MFA in Film at Columbia University.

DIRECTOR STATEMENT

In the hospital I created for Boxing Day, the soft and beautiful things I hold dear — innocence, childhood, gentleness, dreams, lovable people — glow within the gloom that illness casts. That is what I want to offer the world.

For me, love and beauty have always been the most worthwhile values to practise in a landscape often marked by misfortune and dystopia. Yet we must still find our way through suffering: how should we act?

The seed of this story appeared when I wrote, “Every scab comes from a love.” Love is the source of healing and beauty, but to love also means to bear pain. For powerful hearts, the answer is not to stop loving out of fear of hurt.

Shaped by the climate and culture of subtropical China, her cinematic voice moves between quiet emotion and whimsical humour. She weaves multi-layered materials into unconventional narrative structures, experimenting with sound, image and character. Through her work, she seeks to bring poetry and childlike wonder to the screen, while holding fast to a belief in love and beauty.

International Sales: Parallax Films

In competition but not part of screening programme.