Whispers in May – Films – Visions du Réel

Chun Ri Huan You

Dongnan Chen
Hong Kong, Netherlands, South Korea, Sweden | 2026 | 95 min
Swiss Premiere
Language : Mandarin
Subtitles : English, French

Qinghua, 14, has just experienced her first period. She takes to the road with her two best friends in search of the traditional skirt that marks this departure from childhood among the Yi ethnic group. On mountain paths straight out of a fairy tale, they encounter many different people. Underscoring this coming-of-age story and modern road trip, a Yi poem recounts the heavy fate of women.

This film is suitable for audiences 14 and older

In the remote mountains of Liangshan in southern China, fourteen-year-old Qihuo lives alone in a small house perched above the village. While her parents work in the town, she must study hard at school to avoid taking the swift turn that could lead to early marriage or factory work. The arrival of her first period marks the end of childhood and an opportunity for her, along with her two best friends, to set out for the town of Butuo, under the pretext of finding the ritual skirt associated with this symbolic rite of passage. This little escape allows them to indulge their daydreams about the future, which they compare to the adult figures they encounter on social media or along their route – figures who guide them and with whom they identify. They question the bimo they meet along the way about their future husbands. Their Hop-o'-My-Thumb-like journey mirrors, in reverse, the tale of two sisters chased by another malevolent shaman, which punctuates their travels in the form of a naive animation. By blending fiction with documentary, Whispers in May offers these young girls a suspended happy ending.

Raphaëlle Pireyre

Whispers in May, 2026
14 Paintings, 2023
Singing in the Wilderness, 2021
The Trail From Xinjiang, 2013
Sound of Vision, 2012