Event cancelled - Screening of 幸福路上 (On Happiness Road), directed by 宋欣穎 (SUNG Hsin-yin).

幸福路上 [On Happiness Road]

directed by 宋欣穎 (SUNG Hsin-yin)
110 mn, Taiwanese animated film, 2018, VOSTA

This deeply touching and delicate feature-length animated film offers much more than a simple autobiographical tale : it offers a sensitive meditation on Taiwan's recent history, intimate memory and the universal quest for happiness.

The film follows the journey of Lin Shu-chi (林淑琪), born in Taiwan on April 5, 1975, the day Chiang Kai-shek died, at a pivotal moment when the island was slowly beginning to transition from a one-party dictatorship to democracy. After emigrating to the United States, Shu-chi learns of her grandmother's death and returns to Taiwan for the funeral. This return triggers a flood of memories: her childhood and adolescence spent on Happiness Road in Xinzhuang, her family, friends and neighborhood relationships, but also the political and social context that shaped her generation.

As she reconnects with her past, Shu-chi questions her own sense of malaise and observes, with a lucidity tinged with melancholy, the transformations of her country in her absence - just as the changes that have taken place within herself. On Happiness Road thus weaves together with great finesse the personal story of one woman and the collective memory of a changing society, bringing together the intimate and the political without ever falling into didacticism.

Far from being a simple nostalgic fable, the film stands out for the subtlety of its vision, the richness of its writing and the evocative power of its animation. Hailed by international critics, it notably won the Golden Horse Award for Best Animated Film and was presented and awarded at numerous animation festivals in Tokyo, Taipei and Stuttgart.

This screening is an invitation to discover - or rediscover - a major work that touches as much by its Taiwanese roots as by its profoundly universal echo, and which leads us to ask ourselves, with sincerity: what is happiness, and where does it really lie?

An excellent opportunity to discover and reflect on the evolution of Taiwanese society through an animated film.