North American Premiere
Haunting, mysterious, and mournful, Chong Keat Aun’s film explores the persecution of the Malaysian Chinese. The first part of Chong’s story concerns May 13, 1969, the day when racial mob violence in Kuala Lumpur led to many killings—mostly of Chinese people. In the second part of the film, set in 2018, middle-aged Ah Eng (Wan Fang) leaves her husband to embark on a mysterious quest. Chong deliberately keeps the story somewhat murky for much of the film’s running time, but when the connections are revealed during a graveside conversation, what emerges is clarifying and powerful. Snow in Midsummer is a film of protest, but it’s many other things as well: an examination of grief, a complex sociological portrait, a work that gracefully explores the possibilities of the long take… Perhaps best of all, it’s a loving depiction of traditional Chinese opera, with the first part of the film set among the milieu of live performance and the second part paying a wistful tribute to the art form.
Community Partner
Wan Fang, Pearlly Chua, Rexen Cheng, Pauline Tan, Peter Yu, Alvin Wong
Malaysia/Taiwan/Singapore
2023
Panorama
In Malay, Mandarin and Cantonese with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits
Producer
Kew Soon Wong, Gene Yao, Wai Thong Chow, Jennifer Jao
Screenwriter
Keat Aun Chong
Cinematography
Jerry Hsu
Editor
Ai Chen Goh
Production Design
Bao Shan Chiang
Original Music
Kah Hoe Yii, Keat Aun Chong
Director
Keat Aun Chong
Chong Keat Aun is an award-winning Malaysian writer-director. His first short Cemetery of Courtesy was shortlisted for the 22nd Busan International Film Festival. His directorial debut The Story of Southern Islet earned him the award for Best New Director and the FIPRESCI Prize and NETPAC Prize at the 57th Golden Horse Awards in 2020.
Filmography: The Story of Southern Islet (2020)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Daisies + Meshes of the Afternoon
This program highlights two landmarks in feminist film: Maya Deren's surrealist short Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), and Vera Chytilova's subversive new wave farce, Daisies (1966), perhaps the most radical, confrontational film of the era.
Sweetland
The government is ready to resettle the far-flung fishing community of Sweetland, Newfoundland with a healthy pay-out -- but only if the entire community signs up for the move. Retired fisherman Moses is one of the last hold-outs. He's lived here his entire life, and he's not ready to put his ghosts behind him.
July Rhapsody
Ann Hui's newly restored 2002 film is a moving and sympathetic portrait of a 40-year-old school teacher (Jacky Cheung) going through a rocky patch with his wife (Anita Mui) while fending off a flirtatious student (Vancouver-born Karena Lam).
La Chimera
Rohrwacher's first feature since Happy As Lazzaro is an exhilaratingly wild, mysterious, rough and tumble tale of a disheveled English tomb raider (Josh O'Connor) living with a roisterous group of Italian bohemians: singers, smugglers and petty thieves.
Evil Does Not Exist
After the international success of Drive My Car, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi quietly made this small-scale independent film, a work of simplicity and grace about a rural community and the developers who want to built a "glamping" retreat in the woods.
They Shot the Piano Player
The fate of a prodigious Brazilian samba pianist murdered in Argentina in 1976 fuels this animated docu-fiction from the team who gave us the Academy Award-nominee Chico & Rita. Jeff Goldblum voices the writer who digs into Francisco Tenório Jr's story.