Shards

At the family reunion on the winter solstice, the grandma and mother knead dough to make Tuanzi (Dango, rice dumplings), while the grandpa and father fold gold foil paper into ingots. The son wanders among the adults, worried about a secret he has discovered. On the surface, the day seems fine, with everyone maintaining their usual expressions, yet something hidden simmers and grows within their chit-chat. This is a process-genre film. “Juci” is a Chinese restoration technique that fixes porcelain by nailing broken shards together. Like the vase in the film, the family is both broken and complete, separated and integral.