The Botanist

Synopsis

In a valley village on the northern border of Xinjiang, a Kazakh boy obsessed with plants, remembering times now gone, slowly disappears into a dreamlike fable of the plant world.

Genre:

Fantasy, Drama

Director:

Jing Yi

Screenwriter:

Jing Yi

Producer:

Shan Zuolong, Qi Ai

Production Company:

Yubai (Shanghai) Pictures Co., Ltd., Sichuan Ershiba Jie Culture Communication Co., Ltd.

About the Director

Young screenwriter and director. Holds a master's degree from the Beijing Film Academy and has made several short films, most of them portraying the full and credible inner worlds of long-established ethnic minority communities. His first feature project, The Botanist, received the Dream General Dreamer Project Award and the ARRI China Award at the film market of the 16th FIRST International Film Festival Xining; it was officially selected for the Asian Project Market of the 26th Busan International Film Festival, where it won a project award; it was the only Chinese project selected for the Doha Film Institute's spring 2024 grants in Qatar; and it was included in the second round of Shanghai major arts creation funding for 2023 by the Shanghai Cultural Development Foundation.

About the Producer

Shan Zuolong: film producer. Producing credits include Kaili Blues (Best Emerging Director, 2015 Locarno Film Festival), Long Day's Journey into Night (Un Certain Regard, 2018 Cannes Film Festival), Love Is a Gun (Lion of the Future for best debut feature, 2023 Venice Film Festival), Little Half (2024 Berlin International Film Festival) and Karst (Fei Mu Award for Best Film, 2024 Pingyao International Film Festival); as executive producer, The Water Murmurs (Short Film Palme d'Or, 2022 Cannes Film Festival). Projects in production include Resurrection and The Botanist. Qi Ai: film producer. Main credits include Guoran (in production), The Botanist (in production), I Am the Happiest Baby in the World (in production), Heavy Rain on Clear Water (in production), Love Is a Gun (Lion of the Future for best debut feature, 2023 Venice Film Festival), Snow Clouds (2023 Berlin International Film Festival) and Like, Happy, Love (2023 Shanghai International Film Festival).

About the Screenwriter

Young screenwriter and director. Holds a master's degree from the Beijing Film Academy and has made several short films, most of them portraying the full and credible inner worlds of long-established ethnic minority communities. His first feature project, The Botanist, received the Dream General Dreamer Project Award and the ARRI China Award at the film market of the 16th FIRST International Film Festival Xining; it was officially selected for the Asian Project Market of the 26th Busan International Film Festival, where it won a project award; it was the only Chinese project selected for the Doha Film Institute's spring 2024 grants in Qatar; and it was included in the second round of Shanghai major arts creation funding for 2023 by the Shanghai Cultural Development Foundation.