EXCLUSIVE: Deadline can reveal the first trailer for Chinese filmmaker Qiu Yang’s first feature, Some Rain Must Fall, which will premiere in the Berlinale’s Encounters section on February 19.
The trailer sets the scene with Cai, a 40-year-old housewife, and her daughter, who is on the school’s basketball team. Cai inadvertently injures an elderly woman during one of her daughter’s basketball matches and this seemingly trivial event is a catalyst for a life spinning out of control, as past events resurface as she moves into an unknown future.
With many shots framing the film’s characters alone and isolated, the trailer captures some of the film’s darker tones and suggests a tense, existential drama. “I thought having a family was everything,” muses Cai, in the first line of dialogue of the trailer.
Some Rain Must Fall‘s main cast includes Yu Aier, Di Shike and Wei Yibo.
The writer-director’s most recent short film She Runs won the Leitz Cine Discovery Prize for best short film at the Cannes Critics’ Week in 2019. A Gentle Night was awarded the Short Film Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017.
Some Rain Must Fall is a China-U.S.-France-Singapore co-production, repped by Goodfellas. Production companies involved include Wild Grass Films (Singapore), Why Not Productions (France), Cinema Inutile (U.S.) and Good Chaos (UK).
Good Chaos is headed by Mike Goodridge, who was a co-producer on Ruben Ostlund’s Triangle of Sadness, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2022 and previously served as CEO of Protaganist Pictures. He is also a co-founder of Wild Grass Films, alongside Qiu and veteran Singaporean producer Jeremy Chua.