Content Special Screening & Post‑Screening Talk

Ma Dawan’s video works: Collection of Grotesque Fables

US THEM

• Director / Screenwriter: Dawan Ma

• Cast: Wang Qihan / Qin Dasen / Wang Zhongjiao, Dong Yenan / Liu Chunlong / Meng Yuchao, Jin Lei / Dai Erbin / Chen Ge, Liu Rui / Yu Lihang

• Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Film Noir

• Production Country / Region: Chinese Mainland

• Language: Mandarin Chinese

• Premiere: 2024 (Berlin)

• Runtime: 12 episodes, 12‑20 mins per episode

Synopsis

Us Them is a video anthology consisting of twelve standalone short films.

Each episode presents a snapshot of a distinct household: an absurdist fable about “family affection” and “morality”, and a dark‑humoured test set out from notions of “filial piety”, “love” and “responsibility”. Breaking away from conventional realist frameworks, the work adopts a grotesque aesthetic with restrained tone and tight structure, yet it delicately confronts the absurdities of everyday life that we tend to overlook.

Stories range from a couple pretending to be grandchildren, to a husband who enshrines his parents as wooden sculptures; from Meng Zong seeking moral lessons in the ocean, to the gustatory spell of bitter melon and chocolate; and a centenarian sustained by human breast milk. Each narrative hovers on the margins of morality. Out of the cracks of Chinese familial ethics emerges a space that evokes both laughter and unease.

This is not merely “family drama”. It functions more like a visual dissection, an intimate dialogue concerning “how we face them and in turn look back at ourselves”. More precisely, it is a prophecy that “we will eventually become them”.