Four Journeys

To slow down the population growth, China introduced the one-child policy in 1979: every Chinese couple could only have one child. Filmmaker Louis Hothothot (Louis Yi Liu) was born in 1986 as the second child. This meant that he was illegal. His parents' punishment for this was severe: his father had to pay three years' salary and he could forget about his political career.

The devastating consequences of his birth left Louis with a biting sense of guilt. In his twenties, he left China for Europe. Five years after he last saw his parents and sister, he returns with a camera to find answers to his questions and to repair the broken relationship with his parents. The result is an intensely painful and personal film. Opening film of the 34th edition of IDFA.