Palimpsest: The Story of a Name

Henry Stephen. It doesn’t exactly scream “Chinese”, and Henry’s daughter Mary, who immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong with her family when she was 15, has been asked about her surname all her life. But her dad’s account of his background, in a multi-volume memoir he wrote with his wife Hilda, is quite surprising: he claims to be at least half Australian-Indigenous. Returning to China and armed not only with the journals but reams of 8mm home movies from the 1950s and 60s, Mary unravels this claim and comes up with different hypotheses, freighted with thorny questions of history, colonialism, pride and prejudice.

Stephen is best known as Eric Rohmer’s editor for a quarter century, so it’s no surprise how elegantly Palimpsest weaves together home movies, letters, literary allusions and philosophical reflections. In that sense, it feels like a very French film. Yet it’s fundamentally about Chinese identity, especially in the British protectorate of Hong Kong after WWII, when the right name might unlock the future…

Palimpsest serves as a family investigation and a personal essay for Stephen, but what her efforts uncover — a desire for acceptance and belonging — finds connection across a broad spectrum. The vulnerability of Stephen’s filmmaking and willingness to share her story such that others may find solace, courage, and everything in between offers an inspiring message in and of itself. Especially in cultures that safeguard family secrets to a fault, Palimpsest demonstrates the value in opening the vault.

Rachel Ho, POV Magazine

Absorbing and endlessly surprising.

4/5, James Marsh, South China Morning Post