Hidden Letters

“Feng and Qing have created a masterstroke of poetic cinema, delivering a homogenous audio/visual experience that vastly augments the projected importance of their living and literary subjects.”

— Matthew Roe,

Film Threat

“Unlike the majority of docs, Hidden Letters doesn’t really set itself a goal—it’s more of a mosaic piece that, in its best moments, has the vérité feel of a late-’60s Maysles brothers movie, notably an intimate scene in which Simu sits down with her future sisters-in-law, who speak candidly about marriage and sacrifice.”

— Damon Wise,

Deadline Hollywood

Hidden Letters

2022 | China / US / Norway | 86 min

ABOUT THE FILM

LOGLINE

Hidden Letters tells the story of two Chinese women trying to balance their lives as independent women in modern China while confronting the traditional identity that defines but also oppresses them. Connected through their love for Nushu—a centuries-old secret text shared amongst women—each of them transforms through a pivotal period of their lives and takes a step closer to becoming the individuals they know they can be.

LONG SYNOPSIS

For thousands of years, women in China, who were often forced into oppressive marriages and forbidden to read or write, shared a secret language among themselves called Nushu. Written with delicate strokes made from sharpened bamboo sticks dipped in ink, Nushu bonded generations of Chinese women in a clandestine support system of sisterhood and survival.

Fast forward to contemporary China, where two modern women are connected by their fascination with Nushu. In Jiangyong, Hu Xin works as a Nushu museum guide and aspires to master the ancient script following the breakup of her marriage. In Shanghai, Simu is passionate about music and Nushu, but archaic expectations threaten to end her pursuit of both. Influenced by Nushu’s legacy of female solidarity, the two women struggle to find balance as they forge their own paths in a culture steeped in female subservience to men.

Offering a unique lens through which to view women’s equality, this fascinating film also explores the increasing commercialization of the deeply private Nushu language in direct opposition to its heart-wrenching origins. Filmmaker Violet Feng captures small revealing moments with gentle grace, culminating in a powerful resonance that lingers.

—Andrea Passafiume, Programmer, Tribeca Festival

Director Violet Du Feng

Co-Director Zhao Qing

Writers Violet Du Feng, John Farbrother

Producers Violet Du Feng, Metter Cheng Munthe-Kaas, Jean Tsien, Su Kim

Executive Producers James Costa, Ken Pelletier, Sally Jo Fifer, Jaeson Ma, InMaat Productions

Co-Producers Tanja Georgieva-Waldhauer, Betsy Tsai

Supervising Producer Michael Kinomoto

Consulting Producers S. Leo Chiang, Keri Archer Brown

Associate Producers Zhang Juefang, Daniel Chein, Fred Grinstein, Zhang Yiqian, Eric Tu

Editor John Farbrother

Directors of Photography Feng Tiebing, Wei Gao