Amidst the mountains of China’s Hunan region, a young boy finds magic in poetry and then watches it disappear with time.
Director: Deming Chen
Runtime: 87
Fest Year: 2026
Deming Chen’s cinematography in his startling debut may make the rolling hills of China’s Hunan region seem otherworldly and fantastical, but it is here that he documents the life of his young protagonist, Gong Youbin, from age 9 to 13. It is here, among fog-covered mountains and open fields, and where his family farms, that Gong lives out his days. It is here that Gong, aching from a deep hurt, finds poetry. Without unnecessary sentimentality, Gong’s poems mingle with the beautiful flow Chen finds in the surrounding world. A meditation on a fleeting childhood and the passage of time, Always is also a portrait of the resilient and humorous adults around Gong who hold him as he falls in and out of love with words. (BC)