The winner of the main prize at CPH:DOX, this impressionistic hybrid documentary follows a teenage girl on a quest to find a ceremonial skirt.

Fourteen-year-old Qihuo has just had her first period. In her Nuosu community in south-west China’s remote, mountainous Liangshan district, this milestone signals that she is ready to work in the factories – and, even, for arranged marriage. Tradition also calls for menarche to be commemorated with a “skirt-changing” ceremony, in which garments signifying childhood are replaced. With her parents both working miles away from their village, Qihuo shares her secret with her two best friends; and, together, the girls set out across the mountains to find her a new skirt.

Described by director Dongnan Chen as a “reluctant coming-of-age film”, Whispers in May is a poignant documentary – created collaboratively with its protagonists – that could easily be mistaken for a fictional work. As the girls traverse the rugged landscape, trawl through fabrics at local markets and get their palms read by fortune tellers, we witness this precious and fleeting moment of their lives between childhood and adulthood, between freedom and responsibility. In awarding this dreamlike time capsule, the CPH:DOX jury praised it as “a modern-day fairytale that heeds monsters and factories, alike”.

“Carefully edited and quietly playful in perspective, it balances a light touch with the seriousness of its coming-of-age themes.” – Variety

Friday 14 August, 11am, ACMI Cinema 1 
Wednesday 19 August, 11am, ACMI Cinema 1

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