CHINESE
Trailer
Synopsis
At a school, two 9-year-old Chinese girls meet at the beginning of the school year. Everyone assumes that they will become friends, but absolutely nothing unites them. Lucía is a second generation of immigrants. She feels absolutely Spanish and only thinks about integrating with the rest of her friends from school. She wishes she had “normal” parents like the rest of her friends, but hers constantly embarrass her because they don't speak Spanish, they work more than 14 hours at the bazaar and they don't even allow her to celebrate her birthday at Burger King. . The other girl is Xiang. She is adopted and with her face she reveals wherever she goes that she is not the daughter of her parents. Wherever she goes with her Spanish parents, she catches her attention. Xiang wonders about her biological family; She neither feels Chinese nor does she feel accepted by the other children at school. The two girls will cross paths, separate and end up being vital to each other in the search for their identity.
Film sheet
At a school, two 9-year-old Chinese girls meet at the beginning of the school year. Everyone assumes that they will become friends, but absolutely nothing unites them. Lucía is a second generation of immigrants. She feels absolutely Spanish and only thinks about integrating with the rest of her friends from school. She wishes she had “normal” parents like the rest of her friends, but hers constantly embarrass her because they don't speak Spanish, they work more than 14 hours at the bazaar and they don't even allow her to celebrate her birthday at Burger King. . The other girl is Xiang. She is adopted and with her face she reveals wherever she goes that she is not the daughter of her parents. Wherever she goes with her Spanish parents, she catches her attention. Xiang wonders about her biological family; She neither feels Chinese nor does she feel accepted by the other children at school. The two girls will cross paths, separate and end up being vital to each other in the search for their identity.
LANGUAGES): Spanish, Mandarin
SUBTITLE: English
COUNTRY(S): Spain
PREMIER TYPE: Latinamerican Premiere
SECTION: Hispanic Looks
DIRECTOR(S): Arantxa Echevarría
PRODUCER(S): Arantxa Echevarría, Jaime Ortiz de Artiñano, Gonzalo Salazar-Simpson, Pilar Sánchez Díaz
SCREENWRITER(S): Arantxa Echevarría
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Pilar Sánchez Díaz
EDITOR: Renato Sanjuán
MUSIC: Marina Herlop
CONTACT: Latin Films
DISTRIBUTION: Carolina Yuste, Xinyi Ye, Shiman Yang, Ella Qiu, Leonor Watling, Pablo Molinero, Yeju Ji, Julio Hu Chen, Qingfei Zhu, Valeria Fernández
Director's Statement
It is a very choral film, which talks about many stages, characters... There is also an adopted Chinese girl who I think is something terrible. You go with your European parents and everyone knows that you are adopted: people look at you and see that you don't belong to that family. It seems very hard to me. Then there is the second generation of adolescents, who are the 'bananas' or 'chiñoles', yellow on the outside, but white on the inside. That's amazing. They are Spanish, of course. They feel like teenagers in high school but, at the same time, when they get home they have an entire atavistic culture from a long time ago that puts them on the ground. 'Chinas' is the story of identity, not where you come from; The loving generations have a very complex situation because they are Spaniards with feelings of a different culture; or they are from a different culture that has to coexist with the Spanish. To me it seems like a challenge for an age when one is so fragile.
Festivals and awards
It is a very choral film, which talks about many stages, characters... There is also an adopted Chinese girl who I think is something terrible. You go with your European parents and everyone knows that you are adopted: people look at you and see that you don't belong to that family. It seems very hard to me. Then there is the second generation of adolescents, who are the 'bananas' or 'chiñoles', yellow on the outside, but white on the inside. That's amazing. They are Spanish, of course. They feel like teenagers in high school but, at the same time, when they get home they have an entire atavistic culture from a long time ago that puts them on the ground. 'Chinas' is the story of identity, not where you come from; The loving generations have a very complex situation because they are Spaniards with feelings of a different culture; or they are from a different culture that has to coexist with the Spanish. To me it seems like a challenge for an age when one is so fragile.
38 Goya Awards (2024) – Best new actor (Julio Hu Chen) nominated Best new actress (Xinyi Ye) nominated Best new actress (Yeju Ji) nominated Best song (Marina Herlop (Chinas)) 29th Forqué Awards 2023 Film and Education in Values Award, nominated.
Arantxa Echevarría
Arantxa Echevarría Carcedo (Bilbao, 1968) is a Spanish film and television director, screenwriter and producer. In 2018 she became the first Spanish film director selected in the Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival for her debut film Carmen y Lola. Echevarría studied Image Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid and specialized in Audiovisual Production at the CMA of the same university and film production at the Sidney Community College in Sydney (Australia). Since 1991, Echevarría has developed her professional career in the audiovisual industry, combining work in advertising and film. Her first steps in directing began with the short film Panchito, a tragicomedy with non-professional actors that received, among others, the Telemadrid award. At Night and Suddenly, a psychological thriller directed in 2014, was nominated for best short film at the XXVIII edition of the Goya Awards. The short film The Last Bus received the prestigious award for best project at the Medina del Campo Festival. In 2017, Echevarría directed his first feature film Carmen y Lola, which was nominated for eight 2019 Goya Awards: film, original script (Arantxa Echevarria), novel direction (Arantxa Echevarria), revelation actress (Rosy Rodríguez and Zaira Romero), revelation actor (Moreno Borja ), supporting actress (Carolina Yuste) and original song (“You will miss me”, by Paco de la Rosa). The film was a finalist for the Julio Alejandro award from the General Society of Authors and Editors (SGAE). In addition, its debut was selected in April 2018 for the Directors' Fortnight (a parallel section that celebrates 50 years) to make its world premiere. within the framework of the Cannes Festival, where it also competed for the Caméra d'or award for Best First Feature. She has also won the Dunia Ayaso award at the 2018 Valladolid Festival and three awards at the Toulouse Cinespaña (actor, Audience Award and Violette d'Or). Nominated for best new director at the 33rd edition of the Goya Awards, on February 2, 2019, she won and received said award for her film Carmen y Lola..
Director's Filmography
Don Enrique de Guzman (2012)
Short film- At night and suddenly (2013)
Short film- The soloist of the orchestra (2015)
Documentary- Me, President. (2015)
Short Film- The Last Bus (2016)
Short film – Carmen and Lola (2018)
El Cid (2019)
Amazon Prime Series -Chapter 5 Atonement. The perfect family (2021)
Chinas (2023)
politically incorrect (2024)