The Water Has Memory

This film aimed to portray the sentiments transcending time and consciousness. It tells the story of an Alzheimer’s patient (“Feng”)’s illusional world, her entanglement of reality and the past. Within the chaos in her mind, memories of youth emerged, primitive and pure.

In a wet rainy day, the sound of the rain called back the sound of waters deep in her memory. The memories related to her father who died early, some distant but irreparable pain, love, loss…emerged.

The film discusses the theme of “time and loss” through a non-linear narrative. For Feng in childhood, her father is her shelter. The transition from health, to illness to death actually symbolizes the disappearance of life shelter, foreshadowing a girl’s growth along with the loss.

Directed by Yanguo Hou (China)