The 2021 winner of the Göteborg Film Festival’s Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award dives into personal memories that embody the persistence of life in the face of enormous tragedy.

Xiaoxian lives with her younger sister and their parents in rural Sichuan province. Her mother is pregnant, and her father works in town, so the girls spend most of their time with their grandparents. Over seven days in the summer of 1992, the 12-year-old witnesses three deaths and two births that change her life forever.

The Victorian College of the Arts–trained Li Dongmei makes her feature debut with a deeply intimate film that evokes events from her own childhood, including the death of her mother. Like the Iranian cinema that the director has been influenced by, Mama is simple in style but emotionally complex, featuring slow, striking images of the Chinese countryside and everyday rural life that unfold like photographs from the past. The first Chinese-directed film to win Göteborg’s breakout award, Mama is a stirring meditation on family, love and death.

“Part a return to the past, but also a meditation on life, death and family … Touching and beautifully shot.” – Asian Movie Pulse