Chinese filmmaker Yan Siyu is presenting her debut feature, Outside the Room of My Own, at the Shanghai International Film Festival’s SIFF Project section, where the film is screening as a work-in-progress. Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s seminal essay A Room of One’s Own, the project follows writer Yuan Chengge as she leaves Beijing and embarks on a journey to Chengdu and the village of Luding alongside her mother and grandmother.
The story brings together three generations of women while exploring life across different Chinese settings, from major cities to smaller communities, against a backdrop of social and economic change. Yan said the film moves beyond traditional ideas of female independence and instead examines how identity is shaped through relationships with others. She explained that the project places the experiences of a daughter, mother and grandmother side by side in an effort to reflect the complexity of women’s lives in contemporary China.
The filmmaker, who was born in Chengdu and later studied at the Beijing Film Academy, described the project as emerging from a period of personal reflection. According to Yan, the film explores questions surrounding gender, generations and individual existence while also representing the beginning of her own artistic voice as a filmmaker.
French-Chinese actress Lucie Zhang stars as Yuan Chengge. Yan said she was inspired to cast Zhang after seeing her performance in the short film Nervous Energy. Following discussions about the project, Zhang quickly agreed to take on the lead role. The cast also includes veteran actress Yue Hong as Yuan’s mother and Wang Caiping as her grandmother.
Behind the camera, the production features editor Kong Jinglei and cinematographer Tao Qiu, both known for acclaimed work in Chinese and international cinema. Currently in the rough-cut stage, Outside the Room of My Own is seeking international distribution partners as well as collaborators for sound and music design. Further post-production work, including sound design, original score and colour grading, is still to be completed ahead of the film’s eventual release.
