Brief History of a Family, winner of Most Popular Director and Most Popular Artistic Contribution at the 14th Beijing International Film Festival Forward Future Section, will hit theaters nationwide on September 12. Directed and written by emerging filmmaker Lin Jianjie, the film stars Zu Feng, Guo Keyu, Sun Xilun, and Lin Muran. Through precise visual composition, the movie situates its story within domestic spaces, and delves into Chinese family relationships. It has won awards and nominations at multiple international film festivals worldwide, including the Berlin International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, and Cairo International Film Festival.

　　

Poster for Brief History of a Family

After a mishap with classmate Tu Wei (Lin Muran), Yan Shuo (Sun Xilun) finds himself welcomed into Tu Wei’s harmonious home. Yet this unexpected guest unsettled the balance of authority within the family. Yan Shuo fit the classic mold of the perfect child - excellent grades, inquisitive, well-behaved, considerate of his mother’s sacrifices (Guo Keyu), and understanding for his father (Zu Feng)’s unconventional hobbies. Yan Shuo’s unfortunate background and need for care drew Tu Wei’s parents’ affection; they tipped the invisible scale between him and their own son Tu Wei, who drifts through life with no ambition, until a decisive moment arrived.

　　

Stills from Brief History of a Family

As the outsider challenged the family’s core, the delicate order was threatened, and the silent contest between Tu Wei and Yan Shuo was only just starting. Pain became the kids’ currency for attention, accomplishments their ticket to love, and the subtle psychological game between parents and kids unfolded. Within the cramped space, feelings and longings brewed, and secret truths stayed concealed. In the end, will the family remain a cozy foursome, or a reshuffled trio? The plot holds all the answers.

With the two-child policy in place for years, Lin Jianjie, a bioinformatics-trained filmmaker, turned his lens from microbes to Chinese family structures, examining how the policy reshaped households. In his feature debut Brief History of a Family, Lin delicately portrays the relationship between the “intruder” Yan Shuo and the “native” Tu Wei. The film portrays the struggle for parental affection as a silent, smokeless war, in which human relationships slowly distort and lose their original shape.

　　

Stills from Brief History of a Family

“Everlasting” festival journal spotlights this unconventional “horror film” that captures the raw reality of Chinese family bonds, revives familiar memories of domestic struggles, and redefines the family narrative within the suspense genre.

　　

With a distinctive eye, Brief History of a Family reframes everyday family life as a taut psychological thriller, both unsettling and refreshingly original. This September 12, come to the theater, and into our family.