Directed by Jianying “Story” Chen (Chine/France), Yingxi, TH Entertainment, Ghosts City Films.

Set in a frozen, near-future world, the film follows Gu Chen, a young woman living in Glaceterre, an ice-covered city seemingly left behind by technological progress. While workers continue to harvest and move enormous blocks of ice, the long-promised connection between Glaceterre and the advanced Fireworks system remains unfinished. For Gu Chen, an invitation from a dance company in the automated Bright Zone offers the possibility of another life. At the same time, Xu Chu, an engineer involved in the creation of Fireworks, comes back to Glaceterre hoping to recover fragments of his past. Their stories unfold against a cold yet dreamlike landscape of frozen streets, reindeer and industrial structures. Beneath its futuristic setting, the film is ultimately concerned with memory, attachment and the traces people leave behind. Gu Chen’s final dance brings these ideas together, suggesting that even in a damaged and imperfect world, love and memory can still give life its meaning.