The Breaking Ice (燃冬)

When Haofeng misses his flight, he meets the bubbly tour guide Nana and her best friend Xiao on the border between China and North Korea. With an empathic nod to the French nouvelle vague, Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen's The Breaking Ice chronicles the emotionally layered and sexually charged encounter between three lonely souls. Peering into existential angst, the twenty-somethings seem to face a permanent dilemma. Can a night out or a spontaneous road trip still remedy those feelings of melancholic loneliness, or does that just make it all the more awkward? With a delicate gaze and a refreshing soundtrack, Chen portrays a Chinese generation that, wandering through murky meaninglessness and frozen landscapes, gently connects with the humanity of others.

“This poignant, poised story pivots on the deeper discovery that often, it is by involving ourselves in the healing of others, that we come to be healed ourselves, and on the sadder realization that even if connection makes life livable, the living must ultimately be done alone.” - Variety