Ningbo

Curated by CiLENS in collaboration with 30° Ningbo Short Film Festival

宝孜达 (Baozhda)
Keran Abukasimu, China, 2024, 25 min. Mandarin with English subtitles

独唱团 (Solos)
钟雨昂 (Zhong Yu'ang), Mainland China, 2025, 25 min. Mandarin with English subtitles

兵捉贼 (Game Rule)
陈颖淇 (Chen Yingqi), Hong Kong, China, 2024, 31 min. Mandarin with English subtitles

人生骑旅 (Life on Wheels) 
陈奕阳 (Chen Yiyang), Mainland China, 2025, 35 min. Mandarin with English subtitles

Four contemporary shorts from China. Spanning the Kazakh steppes, schoolyards, and a frozen lake, each quietly asks what it costs to belong. A boy in Xinjiang faces an ancient ritual that clashes with his urban conscience, a fifth-grader is asked to disguise his gender for the sake of a choir’s balance, a Hong Kong student discovers that the enforcers of rules are often the first to be trapped by them, and a young cyclist braves -20°C around Sayram Lake, chasing a freedom that needs no permission. Across generations and landscapes, how does each protagonist navigate tradition, institution, and expectation?

CiLENS is a Berlin-based non-profit film curation collective that engages audiences in an in-depth exploration of contemporary China and the Sinophone world. Through interdisciplinary events and thematic screenings, we foster transcultural dialogue and create spaces for meaningful connections.