This taut, visually inventive Chinese thriller has drawn comparisons to buzzy social-class parables Saltburn and Parasite.

Fifteen-year-old Yan Shuo is injured when hit with a stray basketball by Tu Wei. Apologetic about the accident and sympathetic to the former’s difficult home situation, Wei absorbs Shuo into his bougie existence. But Shuo’s arrival forces everybody to evaluate their lives and reconsider the roles fate has dealt them. What will become of this newly fused family unit?

The spectre of the one-child policy looms over this atmospheric debut that lays bare China’s widening class divide. You’d be forgiven for thinking the setup sounds familiar, but first-time feature director Jianjie Lin’s keen eye and masterful story-spinning skills constantly make the audience question every character’s motives – as well as their own suspicions. Filled with arresting imagery and offering a simmering glimpse into the hypocrisies and hidden machinations of an unequal society, Brief History of a Family is sure to pull you into its menacing world.

“With its intriguing performances, narrative restraint and unanswered questions, the movie delivers a strong pull of yearning as well as tantalizing currents of suspicion and dread … An engrossing brain-tickler.” – Hollywood Reporter