25/03/2026 - Dongnan Chen’s documentary offers a quietly intimate portrait of adolescence unfolding in the remote Liangshan Mountains of China

Screening in the DOX:AWARD competition of this year’s CPH:DOX, where it ended up scooping the top prize (see the news), Dongnan Chen’s Whispers in May follows 14-year-old Qihuo as she negotiates the uneasy terrain between childhood freedom and the adult responsibilities imposed on her by family, tradition and circumstance. While the documentary occasionally struggles with pacing and narrative momentum, its compassionate gaze and the evident trust between filmmaker and subjects yield a delicate coming-of-age story anchored in moments of fleeting emotion.

Chen adopts a patient, observational approach from the outset. The film opens with a series of wordless images: Qihuo running through tall grass, absorbed in a computer game, preparing food. These fragments establish the film’s lyrical tone and its preference for quiet observation over overt exposition. Gradually, the contours of Qihuo’s situation begin to emerge. Her parents are migrant workers living far from home, and the recent death of her grandfather has left the teenager responsible for caring for her younger siblings while continuing to attend school. Phone conversations with her mother, heavy with unspoken anxiety and reproach, reveal the economic and emotional pressures that weigh down on the family. Chen’s camera lingers on Qihuo’s face as she absorbs these expectations, capturing subtle shifts in expression that suggest both resilience and quiet exhaustion.

Yet the picture is careful not to reduce its protagonist to a figure of burden. Chen also observes the spaces where adolescence briefly reclaims its lightness. After school, Qihuo and her friends Atnyop and Itgop splash around in a nearby stream, flirt shyly with boys and exchange playful teasing. In these scenes, the documentary allows glimpses of a more carefree version of the girls, revealing the tension between youthful curiosity and the social roles gradually closing in around them. The sense of friendship between the three teenagers becomes one of the pic’s most affecting elements, providing emotional warmth within the broader portrait of rural life.

A turning point arrives when Qihuo quietly reveals to her friends that she has reached puberty. Within the local Yi community, this biological milestone carries immediate social implications: it signals readiness for work, and potentially even marriage. The disclosure sets in motion the film’s central narrative gesture. In collaboration with the filmmakers, the girls decide to embark on a small journey to find a traditional skirt that would mark Qihuo’s transition into womanhood. The film openly acknowledges this segment as a form of “improvised fiction”, a hybrid device that blurs the boundaries between documentary observation and staged storytelling.

The experiment produces mixed results. On one hand, the journey allows the girls to encounter different corners of their community and opens space for cultural observations, including a striking funeral ritual in which the deceased is cremated alongside personal belongings. On the other hand, the episodic structure occasionally dilutes the emotional focus established earlier in the film. Certain encounters feel less purposeful, and the narrative begins to meander, momentarily disrupting the otherwise delicate rhythm Chen cultivates.

Still, Whispers in May remains anchored by a strong sense of perspective. The movie’s carefully composed close-ups, along with brief animated-drawing interludes that punctuate the narrative, lend the work a distinctive texture. The result is a portrait that reveals relatively little in conventional plot terms, yet gradually accumulates meaning through observation.

In a competition where many titles carry an urgent political or investigative thrust, Chen’s film stands apart for its contemplative modesty. It may not be the most gripping entry in this year’s line-up, but its sincerity and the access granted by its young protagonists ensure that the experience remains resonant.

Whispers in May was staged by Tail Bite Tail Films (Hong Kong) and Muyi Film (Netherlands), in co-production with HER Film (Sweden) and Seesaw Pictures (South Korea).