THE BOTANIST

In a remote village in Xinjiang, a young Kazakh boy named Arsin finds solace in the company of plants. He soon meets Meiyu, a spirited Han girl whose unpredictable nature reminds him of a rare, otherworldly plant. As their friendship blossoms, it becomes a delicate dreamlike allegory that blurs the lines between reality and the enchanting world of botany.

With an aesthetic that combines meticulousness and an approach that plays with the poetry of intimacy, The Botanist explores, from the children’s perspective, the changes and transformations—both rural and urban—that shake contemporary China.