At Food & Footage, filmmakers meet chefs to combine moving images with a menu specially tailored to the film program - and thus bring current social, cultural and political issues to the table.

In this edition, we present a special documentary film, followed by a discussion with the director from China and three of the film's protagonists: an 8-year-old girl, a 17-year-old boy and their mother. The director is currently artist-in-residence at ZK/U Berlin.

The film follows two boys over a period of eight years - and observes how their identities develop under the influence of different cultural and social backgrounds. When 3-year-old Kai moves to Beijing from the UK, he meets 2-year-old Zihao from rural Sichuan. The camera stays by their side as they grow up, play and develop friendships - naturally touching on issues of skin color, nationality, class, culture, gender and sexuality.

A sensitive portrait of childhood, difference and the emergence of self-images in a changing world - embedded in a culinary evening that invites dialog.

Playmates
Xiaopei He
46'00''
China, 2019
Chinese with English subtitles