Screening
International Tertiary Students Group (Short Film) Finalist
Jumah
Liu Qing Lin, Ye Han Ling (Communication University of China)
China / 16'30'' / In Mandarin and Arabic with Simplified Chinese and English subtitles
Xingyue was born into a devout Muslim family in a central Chinese city, where both her mother and grandmother are practicing believers. Now nineteen, she increasingly feels how different her upbringing and identity are compared to her peers.
According to Islamic teachings, altering one’s body is considered sinful. In an act of rebellion, Xingyue decides to get a tattoo — a personal challenge to the religious definitions of sin and a symbolic assertion of autonomy over her body.
To do so, she steals money from her family’s shop while leaving her grandmother alone at home. Just as she’s about to go through with the tattoo, she receives a call from her mother: her grandmother has passed away suddenly at home — and it is Jumu'ah, the sacred day of communal prayer.
Wracked with guilt, Xingyue returns home to keep vigil for her grandmother with her mother. The next day, her mother takes her to perform the ritual purification. In conversation, Xingyue learns that her grandmother had concealed her theft from her mother. She wants to offer comfort but struggles to find the words. Together with other villagers, they bathe the grandmother’s body and prepare her for burial. When Xingyue removes her grandmother’s ring, a flood of grief overwhelms her, and she runs out in tears.
Later, as she returns to her grandmother’s now-empty room, she imagines seeing her there once more — reciting prayers, performing the daily rituals. What she once tried so hard to escape and reject now seems to carry a different weight: a sense of belonging, of continuity, of love. With this quiet reconciliation, Xingyue steps into a new chapter of her life.
