WHERE THE SUN SHINES BRIGHT

In Where the Sun Shines Bright, an 18-year-old boy facing the uncertainty of adulthood finds his own story reflected in the lives of four children in the same village—parallel journeys of left-behind childhood shaped by resilience and the fragile brightness of growing up.

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Synopsis: In a picturesque yet impoverished village in southern China, where population outflow is severe and many parents leave their children behind to work in the cities, the lives of five left-behind children unfold. Seven-year-old Aileen embarks on a journey to the city with a red egg, searching for her distant mother, and finds an unexpected guardian in a delivery driver. Twelve-year-old Dan confronts school bullying and a strained relationship with his father. Thirteen-year-old Xuan struggles with puberty as his changing voice threatens his dream of reuniting with his parents. Teenager Tia expresses herself through dance on TikTok, while trying to accept her new stepmother. Meanwhile, dreamy Hong, on his eighteenth birthday, contemplates his future.

Expanding on Lam Can-zhao’s short films A Bright Sunny Day (Cannes 2023) and A Summer’s End Poem (Berlinale 2024), Where the Sun Shines Bright weaves together five distinct yet interconnected stories set in the same village. Each story captures the bittersweet journey of left-behind children as they navigate a world shaped by absence, revealing their quiet resilience.
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Content advisory: animal carcass.
The slaughterhouse scenes in the film were filmed in a real working environment using observational documentary footage. The production did not stage, direct, or initiate any animal slaughter. No animals were harmed or killed for the purpose of this film.

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Optional subtitles: English / Chinese / Spanish / Russian / Italian