She Is in the Midst of the Water centres on Hu Lu's personal experience and her sense of gender, telling a story, one that happens every day, of women's awakening set against patriarchal tradition. Hu Lu is ambitious and dreams of becoming a doctor, but ends up as an underground garment worker; Li Han is content with an ordinary life and has no ambitions, but has to do a doctorate. The film reflects on the traditional idea that "men work outside, women keep the home". Hu Lu could be our mother, our sister, or any woman around us. The film shows how an ordinary woman like her takes the difficult first step of thinking about her marriage, her social role and her own worth.
In 1995, Hu Lu, a young nurse, follows her husband, who is studying abroad, to New York to earn money to support his studies and keep the family going. But the only work she finds is sewing in an underground garment factory. Many of the women workers are undocumented immigrants, and Hu Lu quietly uses her medical knowledge to help them. She seems to recover the dream of becoming a doctor that she was forced to give up, and finds some joy in life abroad. But her "practising medicine" draws the hostility of the female supervisor, and her body gradually gives way under the workload. Then Hu Lu discovers by chance that her husband has hidden from her a chance to go on to a doctorate: he only wants to go home as soon as possible and live a settled life. The couple have a bitter quarrel. Hu Lu feels she has already sacrificed too much and that her husband's achievements must repay her; she places all her own ambitions on him. As she nears the limit of her physical and mental strength, a medical accident during one of her "treatments" pushes Hu Lu towards breaking point...
Genre:
FamilyDirector/Screenwriter:
Yin ChaoProducer:
Yang Jing | Bao WeiweiProduction Company:
Beijing Chuandeng Culture Investment Co., Ltd.Executive Producer:
Yang ChaoYin Chao: Screenwriter and director with an MFA in Film Directing from the California Institute of the Arts. In 2020 he was among the top ten of the Qingcong Project of the China Film Directors' Guild. He has written and directed award-winning programmes for Stage 13, Warner Bros.' digital platform, distributed by HBO Max. His short films have screened at more than fifty film festivals worldwide.
Yang Jing: Producer. She produced the feature film Crosscurrent, selected for the main competition of the Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution; it also won Best Cinematography at the 53rd Golden Horse Awards. She produced the feature Girls Always Happy, selected for the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival, and The Passenger, which won Best Director at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. Bao Weiwei: Producer, graduated in film production from the California Institute of the Arts. She worked as a film producer at Linmon Pictures on the development and production of several theatrical features, including Mr. Monster. A New Old Play, on which she was a co-presenter, won the Special Jury Prize at the 74th Locarno Film Festival.
Beijing Chuandeng Culture Investment Co., Ltd.: The company aims to produce quality film and television projects with social responsibility and cultural commitment, working on creative development and production. It focuses on the great era and real life, understands the film and television market and the internet market, and has a broad, accurate and forward-looking judgement in identifying directors, the core creative force of the industry. Productions: Female Directors, Crosscurrent, Girls Always Happy, The Passenger and others.
Yang Chao: Director and executive producer. He directed Passages, which received a Special Mention for the Caméra d'Or at the 57th Cannes Film Festival, and Crosscurrent, selected for the main competition of the Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution. He was executive producer of Girls Always Happy, selected for the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival.
In 1995, nurse Hu Lu follows her husband, who is studying abroad, to New York to support his studies and the family, and ends up as a garment worker and an underground doctor... Based on the experiences of the writer's mother.