SALLI (莎莉)
Romance/Family | Taiwan/France | 2023 | 105minutes | Chinese
"The narrative about the personal growth of a thirty-eight-year-old woman, the actors' performances, and the aptly timed music all contribute to the film's delightful charm."
— PARK Sun Young, Busan International Film Festival
Synopsis
The online romance of Hui-Jun with a foreigner ignites gossip in the peaceful rural town where she lives. Hui-Jun is a 38-year-old Taiwanese chicken farmer, living with her brother and teenage niece Xin-Ru. She has been single for a long time and is not very good at interacting with other people. One day, Xin-Ru downloads an online dating app on Hui-Jun’s mobile phone.
Unexpectedly, Hui-Jun, who doesn’t speak English, develops a romantic relationship through the app with a French man “Martin”. In the online world, she is “Salli”. The villagers laugh at Hui-Jun and tell her that it is a romance scam, but Hui-Jun refuses to believe them. She believes it is true love. But all of a sudden, Martin disappears.
To prove Martin’s existence, Hui-Jun, who has never been abroad, decides to leave for Paris to find him..
Director's Biography
Taipei-based director and screenwriter Lien Chien-hung, a 2019 Berlinale Talents alumnus, made the TV movie Their Heaven, shortlisted for the 2017 Golden Bell Awards. His films have been featured at Busan Short Film Festival, Tokyo Short Film Festival, Hawaii Film Festival, among others. Salli marks his debut feature film.
Crew
Directed by:
Chien-Hung Lien
Written by:
Chien-Hung Lien, Essay Liu
Cinematographer:
Ching Yao Liao
Producers:
Amanda Manyin Reinert (ENLA Media)
Uilin Ongsis (The Graduate)
Dennis Wu (Bole Film Co., Ltd.)
Lieh Lee (An Attitude Production Co., Ltd.)
Cast:
Esther Liu
Austin Lin
Ying Hung Lee
Li Yin Yang
Yung Hsu Tang