Director: Jiang Tan

Synopsis

Have we all once created an "ideal friend" to keep our lonely selves company? The Best Version of Madrid is an inner journey about imagination, self-projection and growing up. With a metaphorical narrative structure, the director presents the complex and poetic dialogue between a girl, Yu, and Zhou, the best friend she has imagined since childhood. Since she was little, Yu has imagined a friend named Zhou. Together they live, escape loneliness and dream about the future. Compared with Yu, Zhou has a strong sense of self: she begins to ask questions, to doubt and to leave, forcing Yu to face her true self. The film moves between reality and fantasy: the two walk, talk, fall silent and look at each other, and their final parting signals that Yu is learning to live on her own. In the end, Zhou fades away like a shadow, while Yu walks into real sunlight.