A Small Fiction of My Mother in Beijing
她的独白
China|2025|Drama|Docufiction|12min
Director:Dorothea Sing Zhang
Screenwriter:Dorothea Sing Zhang
Producer: Dorothea Sing Zhang, Nico Cao
Cinematographer:Louis Lustermann
Editor:Chris Zimmerman
Sound:Nico Cao
Starring:Geng Qiao Yun
导演:张穆涵
编剧:张穆涵
制片:张穆涵, Nico Cao
摄影指导:Louis Lustermann
剪辑:Chris Zimmerman
声音:Nico Cao
主演:耿巧云
Synopsis
In an isolated castle, students prepare for a life-changing examination. As anticipation builds to a fever pitch, a storm strikes. Trapped within crumbling walls, their academic sanctuary becomes a prison, and minds begin to break.
Festival&Award
Toronto International Film Festival 2025
Montreal Festival du nouveau cinéma 2025
Director's Note
When we began shooting this film, I had no clear idea of what the story would be. My only intention was to capture archival footage of my mother—as a kind of insurance for myself—so that I would not be left with regret in the years to come. I had once seen a video of Céline Dion, in which she could no longer sing All by Myself the way she once did, her voice altered with age. That image haunted me. Out of fear, I wanted to preserve my mother’s presence before time could change it.
With no script or storyline in mind, I started to notice a small narrative taking shape during the shoot. By the third day of our six-day filming, I found myself writing fictional scenes to weave together with the material we had already captured. Looking at the film now, it feels almost like a docudrama—an intimate reenactment of my own coming-of-age.

Dorothea Sing Zhang
Dorothea Sing Zhang works between hyper-synthesized aesthetics and near-documentary realism, exploring a practical surrealism. A Slade alum, she later studied film at the Ecole de Leth with Lars von Trier, Jørgen Leth, and Thomas Vinterberg. Her Masterpiece Mommy (TIFF ’24, Dokufest EFA nominee) and A Small Fiction of My Mother in Beijing (TIFF ’25) mark her acclaimed “Mommy” trilogy, now concluding with Girl in Dune.





