Paris-based international sales company Inwave Films has come onboard as sales agent for “Whisperings of the Moon,” the debut feature from Chinese filmmaker Lai Yuqing that will have its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival.
The Khmer and English-language drama will screen in the festival’s A Window on Asian Cinema section. The film is a co-production between India, China, Hong Kong, Cambodia and Indonesia.
Set in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, “Whisperings of the Moon” follows theater actress Nisay who returns to her hometown after her father’s death, reigniting a passionate romance with her former lover Thida. Trapped by societal constraints of family, duty and social expectations, their love can only survive in memory and on stage, forcing a heartbreakingly rational farewell.
The film stars Sopheanith Thong as Nisay and Deka Nine as Thida, both students from Cambodia’s Acting Art Academy who met director Lai Yuqing through a collaboration between the academy and the New Asian Filmmakers Collective.
Lai Yuqing, originally from Fujian and born in Tianjin, studied in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto. As a director, actor and musician, her previous shorts including “Two Suns,” “Love Is a Book” and “Notes of A Crocodile” have been recognized at festivals including Toronto, BFI Flare and as a Sundance Ignite Finalist.
The project originated from “Love is a Book” that Lai made under the mentorship of Jatla Siddartha during the New Asian Filmmakers Collective workshop in Phnom Penh last year. The collective was mentored by Siddartha, Lou Ye and Truong Ming Quoy.
Siddartha, whose previous films “Love and Shukla” and “In the Belly of a Tiger” premiered at Busan and Berlinale respectively, serves as producer and co-writer alongside his business partner Esther Li through their Hong Kong-based production house Mirage Films. The company collaborated with Lai’s production house Nimbus Films on the project, marking Mirage Films’ first release.
Additional producers include Lily Yuan Yang, with co-producers Huang Yue and Shen Wei. The film was edited by Akhmad Fesdi Anggorro, whose recent credits include the Netflix series “Cigarette Girl” and the award-winning “Before, Now, and Then.”
Inwave Films co-founders Xueyin Li and Yuxuan Zhang said: “We are pleased to present ‘Whisperings of the Moon,’ the debut feature from Lai, in partnership with Mirage Films and Nimbus Films. Lai’s film is distinguished by a sensitive visual approach and a contemplative narrative style, conveying emotions with subtlety and precision. Notably, her imagery carries a rhythm and fluidity akin to dance, moving with the bodies of the characters; when combined with sound, it produces a heightened sense of imagination and vitality that extends far beyond the image itself.”
Siddartha and Li are currently in pre-production on Siddartha’s third directorial venture “If Ever You Shall Be,” also set in Cambodia and set to be released under the Mirage Films banner.