A film project we’ve been tracking when the Critics’ Week had launched her short Lili Alone, and then invited her feature debut to Next Step workshop, with her deeply moving A Girl Unknown (La Deuxième fille), Chinese filmmaker Zou Jing crafts a deeply affecting portrait of a young woman shaped by loss, instability, and a lifelong quest for belonging against the backdrop of China’s one-child era. Tracing more than a decade in the life of Wang Juan, the film follows her journey through a succession of homes and identities as she navigates a world where many girls were treated as disposable. Rather than focusing solely on the social policies that inform her story, Zou centers the emotional toll of separation, neglect, and systemic inequality, capturing how these forces leave lasting marks on an individual life. Through evocative visuals, restrained storytelling, and a profound empathy for her characters, she finds grace and dignity in moments of struggle. The need to feel seen, valued, and loved is felt here.
Selected for the competition section at this year’s edition of the Critics’ Week, A Girl Unknown won the FIPRESCI Prize and the Gan Foundation Award, I had the chance to speak to Zou Jing about historical and political reality in this intimate emotional experience, and how the film visually explores ideas of identity, memory, silence, and displacement.
