Film with English subtitles!

Gaga is the latest feature film in Laha Mebow’s ‘Atayal Trilogy’ and offers a rare and intimate glimpse into the Atayal tribe.

An indigenous family in northeastern Taiwan struggles to stay together after the death of their beloved grandfather, Hay-ung. After his passing, his sons seem to deviate from his ancestral teachings and become entangled in local politics. Ha-yung’s eldest son, Pasang, joins an election campaign despite opposition from his family, which affects his second son, a farmer. After the election campaign, the entire family is on the verge of falling apart.

Can they stay together and overcome the crisis? This film weaves a complex tapestry of drama across three generations, featuring  emotionally charged life challenges, all imbued with divinely tragicomic undertones.

Laha’s directorial style immediately evokes the work of Japanese masters like Ozu or Kore-eda and Taiwanese new wave director Hou Hsiao-hsien.

Director

Laha Mebow (1975, 陳潔瑤) is an awarded Atayal filmmaker from  Taiwan. With extensive experience in the television and film industry, she is the first female indigenous filmmaker in Taiwan to work on fictional films. Her latest work, ‘GAGA’ (2022, 哈勇家) won the Best Director prize at the Golden Horse Awards.

Curators  

Akvilė Šlėgerytė is a cultural producer and art worker, based in Rotterdam. HSIEH I-Hsuan is a film curator, critic, and practitioner based in Amsterdam and Taipei with an anthropological background.

ASIAN MOVIE NIGHT

This programme is part of Asian Movie Night: a community cultural project in which selected Asian films are being screened to a public on a regular basis with curated themes and after-movie sessions to open up discussions. The project aims to introduce a more diverse view of Asian culture in a comfortable environment and accessible format to a broader audience. It tries to create a physical as well as online community with various cultural backgrounds who are interested in learning about different cultures, hence promoting cross-cultural communication and understanding.