Breathless Animals (2019) The woman speaks only in voiceover and is never seen. Her account is one of hardship, of a mother who died young, of a father sent to a farm for reform during the Cultural Revolution, of all the things the family lacked.

Cut into chapters, ‘Breathless Animals’ is a jumbled culmination of abstract narratives: its first, charts the visual development through the growth of a nation across several decades; its second, a seemingly non-linear interview with an elderly woman (the creator’s mother) as she recollects memories and dreams involving her dissociate reaction to television, bicycles, and her association with the killing of animals.

In Chinese filmmaker Lei Lei’s first feature, anonymous images and found materials skip and stutter through analog animation techniques, while on the soundtrack the director’s mother speaks of her youth in Maoist China and of violent dreams of animals fueled by late nights in front of the television.

But Breathless Animals is a distinct endeavour. Even though it borrows elements from previous (Recycled) works and stemming from Lei Lei's collecting old photos and magazines from flea markets, it uses them to tell an oral story on screen.

“What did you dream about and what was your daily life as a teenager?” An older woman recalls her youthful memories in China during the 1970’s while unfolding in front of our eyes the recreation of the modern times from the past. Until one day, the first breathless animal appears, a White horse…

Lei Lei on Breathless Animals, Memories, and Maoist China

Documentary