Stranger

局外人

2024 | Narrative | 113 min | Color | Mandarin, Cantonese, English | USA, China, Netherlands, Norway, France

writer & director: ZHENGFAN YANG | producer: SHENGZE ZHU | co-producers: FRANK HOEVE, HILDE BERG, FRANÇOIS D’ARTEMARE | featuring: JIN JING, YUAN LIGUO, XUE BAOHE | director of photography: ZHENGFAN YANG | image advisor: SABINE LANCELIN | cinematographer: XIN HONGKE | assistant director: GU XUE | set design: CHEN NUANQI | location sound: DU CHUNFENG | re-recording mixer: JOS VAN GALEN

SYNOPSIS

The hotel room as a place where everyone is a stranger. A place that is yours for just a moment. A temporarily intimate space entered by a maid in order to clean it while, if possible, not leaving a trace of her visit. Each episode of Stranger is set in such a place, and each is captured in one long take. Weaving together a series of episodic stories – some humorous and absurd, some poignant and mysterious – that all unfold within a seemingly confined space, Stranger explores the idea of home while being away from it, and sheds light on the distinctive yet universal experiences of isolation and loneliness.

  • Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Czech, 2024) - Grand Prize of the Proxima Competition

  • São Paulo International Film Festival (Brazil, 2024)

  • El Gouna Film Festival (Egypt, 2024)

  • San Diego Asian Film Festival (USA, 2024)

  • Films from the South (Norway, 2024)

  • Sinema Transtopia (Germany, 2025)

  • Istanbul Film Festival (Turkey, 2025, upcoming)

  • New Directors/New Films (USA, 2025, upcoming)

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A Distant House Smokes on the Horizon (in development)

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