Wugoushui, a Hakka village in southern Taiwan, is slowly losing its traditional way of life as younger generations leave. Its huofang compounds, once shared by generations of one family, grow quiet. Between waiting for children and grandchildren to fill the house and the moments of their departure, eighty-year-old Alan tends her garden, processes the harvest and shares the small chores of daily life with her lifelong friend A-Mei. Here, life has another pace, embraced with grace and quiet acceptance.

Anca Păunescu

There’s a marvellous view of Sokhumi from the roof – and it’s also possible to see the beautiful girl moving into the house across the way with her dog. In Mamuka Tkeshelashvili’s wistful, poetic stop-motion short film, the 13-year-old protagonist is enjoying a carefree summer on the football pitch and at the beach, above all when the girl is also there. But these days of innocence are soon over once he sees her fleeing pell-mell and planes shooting over the city. Mamuka Tkeshelashvili’s puppet and cutout animation remembers the 1993 Sokhumi massacre, in which Abkhazian separatists murdered up to an estimated 7000 Georgian civilians. Yet Tkeshelashvili only hints at the violence, concentrating primarily on the positive memories of the place and the feelings of longing from exile – the girl’s red hair flying in the wind or the beautiful, lovingly fashioned miniature buildings that tell of Sokhumi’s former charm.

Marie Ketzscher