Fiction, Germany, 2022, Medium length, 36 Min, HD, Color
Cast & Crew
Director / Camera / Editor: Hanqi Sheng
Script: Hanqi Sheng, Asma Ben Slama
Camera Assistant: Asma Ben Slama, Leyuan Li
Assistant Director: Andreas Sheng
Sound: Ruxin Liu
Sound design: Haotian Zhong, Hanqi Sheng
Music Composition: Jachin Pausson
Cast: Asma Ben Slama, Youssef Rebahi-Gilbert, Jorge Pizarro, Xiyao Wang, Philomena Lauprecht, Andreas Sheng, Hanqi Sheng.
Synopsis
The whole world is chaotic, life in a foreign city is arduous, and her hometown can no longer be a place of retreat. As Salma walked past the huge billboard on the side of the shopping center, she saw the sentences someone had written on it, which were quoted by countless people:
“There is no right life in the wrong.”
-- Theodor W. Adorno
All she wanted was a break.
Synopsis
"Hanqi and her friends drift through the suburban area of Hangzhou. Strolling through the concrete and neon-lit landscape of the city, they experience the transformations it undergoes daily. As they drift night after night, they become the living interface of a metamorphosis that cannot be perceived or understood if not by becoming part of it.
Thus, Hanqi and her friends catch fleeting glimpses of beauty in an environment that most people would only perceive as alienating, hostile or cold. Like an ambient composition by Brian Eno or Philip Glass, the film moves through minimal variations, completely immersed in its nocturnal beat. Space becomes time.
A film like a poem; a coming-of-age movie that escapes all the known clichés. Stephan Knauss proves that he is one of the filmmakers to watch closely in the next future. The way he handles and organizes all the elements of his extremely beguiling work are irrefutable proof for it. Transit Circle is a sensorial ambient film that displays flair and creativity."
Giona A. Nazzaro, Visions du Réel 2019
Yellow Light Machine
Transit Circle| 一隅未知
Documentary, DE/CN, 2019, 40', HD
Cast & Crew
Director: Stephan Knauss
Producer: Hanqi Sheng
Cast: Hanqi Sheng Shuiqing Wang Wan Xu Yingying Zheng Minda Xu Jun Geng Momo Si Jun Gao
Dolly grip: Xingbo Shu
Cinematography: Stephan Knauss
Editors: Stephan Knauss Hanqi Sheng
Sound-design & music composing: Mario Schöning
Additional saxophone: Kyle Forester
Re-recording mix Patrick Dadaczynski
Translation: Philipp Hirschfeld Hanqi Sheng Konouz Saeed
Illustration: Karlotta Freier
Film Festivals
50th Visions du Réel - International Film Festival Nyon (Switzerland)
62nd DOK Leipzig - International Festival for Documentary and Animated Film (Germany)
33rd FIPADOC - Festival International Documentaire Biarritz (France)
19th Dokumentar Filmwoche Hamburg (Germany)
International Short Film Festival Canton (China)
Love Queer Film Festival 2019 (Beijing)
I'm A Singer From A far City |城外岛屿
Documentary, CN, 80', HD, Working in Progress
Cast & Crew
Director/Camera/Script writer: Hanqi Sheng
Cast: Xiaoqi Fang; Peiyao Wu; Da Shixiong; Shuyang Qin
Editor: Binbin Zhang; Hanqi Sheng
Synopsis
I'm A Singer From A far City, is a feature-length documentary film. The film follows the main character Xiaoqi, who kept searching for his "Dreamland" from city to city, from Yunnan Province to Tibet. In Tibet, he stayed with his old friend Yaoyao, who just came from her hometown and started her own hostel in Lhasa. They came to Lhasa for different reasons but with the same desire, that they both hoped to discover their very own dreamland outside their dreams.
Like the Smile of A Wind
Experimental, EN, 8', 16mm, 2019
Cast & Crew
Dirctor/script: Hanqi Sheng
Performed by: Nana Xu & Puppet Nana
Cinematography: Leon Daniel
Lighting & Camera assistant: Yunus Koylu
Sound Design: Haotian Zhong
Film Festivals
Analog Experimental Film Festival (London)
Rome Prisma Film Awards (Italy)
Synopsis
Like the Smile of A Wind, is a 16mm experimental film. The main character Nana lives very isolated in the city, her puppet is her only company. In the alternate reality the director created, the puppet is not only a silent object, but a distorted reflection of Nana herself.