Flight of the Red Balloon

Director: 

Hou Hsiao-Hsien

Genre: 

Drama

Country/Region of production: 

China/France

Awards and nominations:

Monterrey International Film Festival, 2008 – Winner, Best Director (Hou Hsiao-Hsien) Indiewire Critics' Poll, 2008 - Winner, ICP Award for Best Film

Synopsis:

In Paris, single mother Suzanne (Juliette Binoche) struggles to balance time with her young son, Simon (Simon Iteanu), between her job voice-acting at puppet shows and handling a court case against her downstairs tenant (Hippolyte Girardot), who refuses to leave. She hires Song (Song Fang), a local university student from Beijing, to watch over Simon. Together, Simon and Song create a vibrant world of imagination where a red balloon seems to follow them.

The reason for recommending it:

Hou Hsiao-hsien's first non-Asian film, Flight of the Red Balloon, frames French family life through an Eastern lens on human relationships. It features a single mother, a part-time babysitter from Beijing studying film in Paris, a lonely little boy, and a cramped yet warmly cluttered apartment. Juliette Binoche drifts, grows restless and sinks into sorrow – her energy, invention and concentration are simply phenomenal. The film carries a tender, almost feminine warmth, while its seemingly aimless drift through the city slowly uncovers the very texture of life.