SPRING: SEEING HONG KONG AGAIN

A review by Emmanuel ITIER

In this short documentary of 27 minutes, French filmmaker Benoît Lelievre (“Le miroir d’Alice”, “À ton image”) awakens, in the moment of "spring", the notion of community and warmth in a covid-hit huge city like Hong Kong. Sit down, remain calm, open your senses, and let the spectacle unfold.

Through some aerial cinematography and a poetic approach we encounter several characters taking us by the hand onto a journey of self-discovery and re-defining what it means to survive, overcome challenges, and ultimately get a chance to thrive, with hard work and plenty of good luck.

Doing short documentaries has never been an easy exercise for a filmmaker as, sometimes, getting 90 minutes make you lose yourself and your audience in the rabbit hole, while under 30 minutes might not be enough to capture the essence of your tale to invoke a deep emotional chord in the audiences, which resonates to the feelings of your protagonists. But Lelievre manages, with grace and composure, to pass the test of quality and validity. One can only figure out how to "see Hong Kong again" if they are fully absorbed and submerged by the human conditions of the “heroes”. Having been to Hong Kong myself just a few months before the “big covid closure” I can only express compassion and admiration for this formidable cinematographic “tour de france”.

Through the ups and downs of the very sympathetic characters of this doc; whether it is Henry, the young Cantonese opera artist, or Dolphin Ho, an investment advisor who tries to guide his clients through the pandemic crisis and what it means to risk your money, or Amy, the Hong Kong born young girl who just loves her city in her own way, one can only feel the positive energy rising from this very well crafted endeavor.

It is not a surprise that “Spring: Seeing Hong Kong again” was the surprise of the Prague film festival and that it is embraced by every single festival programmer. We can only salute the talent of Benoit Lelievre and we can’t wait to see what he will be able to deliver next. Maybe a vision of “Hong Kong: Alive and kicking” in a post pandemic time. This is our deep wish. That the world becomes one, again!