The Canadian Chinese co-production Banr, written, directed and starring Eric Xia-Hou, made its world premiere at the 2025 Slamdance Film Festival in its new home of Los Angeles, where it also had the designation of being the only narrative feature from Asia selected this year.
The heartfelt drama follows the fractured collapse of a 40-year marriage between a strong-willed husband named Zhang Jianjun (Sui Li) and his loving wife, Liu Ximei (Baoquing Li), who suffers from Alzheimer’s.
Told through a series of fragmented memories, the camera watches as Zhang leaves a collection of videos behind for his wife in the event that he can no longer take care of her.
Throughout these videos, we see how Zhang and Liu not only take care of each other but manage to still navigate the ups and downs of life, grief and loss as they both succumb to the medical issues that come with age.
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