Winds of Spring

Stay or go? Keyu Chen examines this emotionally charged question in her first professional animated film, Winds of Spring, a delicately crafted work that unfolds with the rhythm of the seasons. Based on the filmmaker’s own personal experiences, this tenderly told story opens a window onto something universal. Driven by the irrepressible need for self-fulfillment, a young girl sets aside her family traditions and decides to leave the nest. In doing so, she begins an inexorable journey toward separation, with all of its magnificent and devastating implications for both her and her grandmother, who agrees to let her go. Keyu Chen employs her signature style of fluid transitions and fine, spare lines inspired by Chinese ink painting, in a film whose nuances of light and dark reflect the protagonist’s hopes and dreams on the dawn of her departure.