Like Michael Crichton, Lin Jianjie went from science to filmmaking. Ahead of his debut feature’s European premiere, he reveals the Asian directors he looks up to

Brief History of a Family, Lin Jianjie’s feature-film debut, had its world premiere at Sundance and is about to screen in Europe at the Berlin film festival

Trained in science, he talks about how his film analyses fractures in a middle class Chinese family and how Asian directors like Wong Kar-wai influence his work

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Lin Jianjie, director of “Brief History of a Family”. His feature-film debut, it had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and will receive its European premiere at the Berlin film festival. Lin tells the post about its theme, and the Asian directors who’ve influenced him.

Published: 4:15pm, 31 Jan 2024

The moment a young director marks their arrival on the international film scene is always a crucial one. For Chinese filmmaker Lin Jianjie, that moment is now.

After directing three short films, his feature-film debut, Brief History of a Family, received its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Lin’s film was reportedly the first to be selected for the festival’s World Cinema Dramatic category. Variety called it an “engrossing brain-tickler”.

Now it is about to receive its European premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival, which opens on February 15, in the programme’s Panorama strand.

The beguiling tale of a middle-class Chinese family whose lives become affected by the arrival of a young adolescent in their midst, it’s a story that had been brewing for years before Lin committed it to film.

“What I remember was this feeling I was trying to capture of seeing family space as a mysterious space,” he says when we speak over Zoom.