Life After Life
(Zhi fan ye mao)

Paradise appears in the form of a garden encompassing different civilisations. The Greeks had the Hesperides, the Bible evokes the Tree of Life? Zhang Hanyi digs down into the fertile soil of mythology to enrich this original story of a life after life set in present-day rural China. The film’s Chinese title means “labyrinthine leaf-laden branches ”, but there are no flowers on this land inspired by the filmmaker’s own land, one that people have deserted to settle in industrial centres. Life After Life recounts the transfer of a tree (immobile but alive) by a child possessed by the spirit of this mother, Xiunying. Her ghost returns to her husband’s yard specifically to see that the tree – planted when they got married – is moved to a place where the ground has not yet been forgotten. Hanyi films this astonishing Chinese ghost story with touching simplicity. A fable about how to cheat death, all forms of death, so as to better keep sight of the essence of life. AR