Growing up in a North American Chinese household, teenager Niuniu was raised between her grandmother’s skilled hands in the kitchen and her mother Jingjing’s constant absence. Years after her grandmother’s passing, Niuniu still clings to those early memories in the warmth of handmade dumplings and a kitchen once full of laughter, while the home she shares with her mother feels colder and more distant. When a confrontation brings long-buried grief to the surface, Jingjing uncovers her
mother’s old recipe letter and decides to cook for the first time in years. That morning, Niuniu finds her in the kitchen, and together they begin to fold dumplings with a quiet understanding that begins to take root.
Directed by Cici Jingwen Xu (Canada)