Under the guise of a topical film detailing a #Metoo experience, Myanmar-born Taiwanese director Midi Z investigates the broader point of view of an actress in the contemporary film industry, focusing on the pressure, micro-aggressions and tension in her relationship with the director, other actors, and the media. It’s a weird and incisive portrait that owes a lot to actress Ke-Xi Wu, a frequent collaborator of Midi Z who wrote and conceived the project based on her own experience, and approached the director to bring it to the screen in addition to playing the main role.

Midi Z was previously known for social realism dramas such as Ice Poison (2014) and The Road to Mandalay (2016), from which Nina Wu (selected in the Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section) is a sleek, symbolically complex departure. I talked to the director in Macao where he served as a juror for the International Competition at the International Film Festival & Awards Macao, discussing how he could best serve Ke-Xi Wu’s impressive script, the way he looks for landscapes in every story, and the evolution of his filmography.