Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish

"Our family is special", says filmmaker Lei Lei’s father Lei Jiaqi. On the audio track of this inventive, poignant animation film he starts to talk about the struggles of his family amid the tumultuos times in the 1960s. When his own father, Lei Ting, is sent to the countryside, he stays behind with his sister and his ill mother. When Mum passes away, as the system forbids Ting to come back to live with his children, the kids are kept in an orphanage. Not long after, history repeated: once again, Ting is sent to a re- education center branded a class traitor. The family is split. They just can write to each other. The daughters are going to university, while Jiaqi and his new mum are sent to the countryside. They all wait for the day to reunite.