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The Thing with Feathers

World Premiere Xu Tianlin | 2022 | Germany | 20min | Short
XU TIANLIN丨Kim Münster丨Chris Caliman丨Mastaneh Amani

Synopsis

An Iranian-Afghan family’s life in Germany can be solely seen through their hands. Iranian doctor Maryam came with her family to Germany for asylum two years ago. She sticks to a strict daily studying routine, hoping to return to her medical career, while her husband Hossain takes care of their baby at home. On this day, Hossain has a job interview at a photo studio, and Maryam, who has to look after her child by herself, has to reschedule her day.


3-《有羽毛的东西》导演

Xu Tianlin

Xu Tianlin is a Chinese filmmaker and media educator based in Hattingen, Germany and Hangzhou, China. She has an academic background in German studies and Journalism. After making documentaries for a decade, she directed her debut narrative short FEDERDING (THE THING WITH FEATHERS). She is also engaged in film education and is the co-founder of the Studio Klasse Story Lab in Yunnan, dedicated to running youth film workshops in China.


Director's statement

For various reasons, since 2015, more and more immigrant families have moved to the town where I live in German. The families are from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, and Ukraine; they were teachers, doctors, pharmacists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and mothers before becoming “refugees”. I witnessed the hardships behind their transformation of identities.
Hand works, touch, scratch, hold, lift, beat and feel. They embody power, strength, serving, healing, taking, and giving. Human hands represent identities. They show a person’s skin color and age and reveal people’s habits and occupations. Hand gestures reveal emotions and unconscious thoughts. Using the hands as symbols, I want to tell stories of people empowered by particular abilities through nature, society, and circumstance but frustratingly unable to benefit from them in their own lives.