What if there was a manner for ladies to communicate with one another secretly? For ladies to freely categorical their innermost sorrows and wishes with out the understanding of males? Such a language exists – and has existed for 1000’s of years – in Jiangyong County of Hunan, China.
Violet Du Feng and Zhao Qing’s “Hidden Letters” follows two millennial ladies, Hu Xin and Wu Simu, who’re defending the centuries-old language system of Nüshu (女書), which interprets to “women’s script.” Nüshu is a syllabic script derived from Chinese characters invented and handed down generationally by peasant ladies who have been denied schooling, had their ft sure, and have been imprisoned by oppressive marriages. “To give each other hope, they invented a language that men did not understand,” we’re advised within the trailer.
Hu, a museum information, and Wu, an aspiring musician, work to protect the “secret language of sisterhood” in opposition to the ravages of a “perpetually patriarchal society,” the doc’s synopsis particulars. Although 1000’s of years have elapsed because the invention of the clandestine script, little has modified within the marital sphere for contemporary Chinese ladies. As one topic reveals within the trailer, “Like in the old days of Nüshu, my husband is the king.”
The founding ethos of Nüshu itself, nonetheless, has been corrupted since its heyday. The trailer sees one man presenting a so-called Nüshu cellphone to a gaggle of girls and one other declaring that “Nüshu is about obedience, acceptance, and resilience. As long as women have these three values we’ll have a good society.”
One interviewee, an aged lady, laments the bastardization of the once-sacrosanct language. “Nüshu was about sisterhood,” she recollects. “Our letters to the sisters were all very private, to share our sufferings secretly. Whatever it is now has nothing to do with the Nüshu we had.”
“One piece of advice to other female directors is to trust your female instinct when portraying such intimate subjects. We have the great advantage of portraying subtlety and tenderness in our cinematography. But in a male-dominated film world, I was challenged during pitch forums [to make] the film more issue-oriented and explicit,” Zhao advised us in 2016.
Feng and Zhao are cousins and beforehand collaborated on 2015’s “Please Remember Me,” a portrait of reminiscence, love, and dignity following an aged Shanghainese couple as they take care of the results of Alzeimher’s illness. Zhao directed the doc and Feng served as author and producer.
“Hidden Letters” hits theaters December 9. It premiered at this 12 months’s Tribeca Film Festival and took residence the Grand Prize for Documentary Feature on the 2022 Heartland International Film Festival.