European Premiere
Innocent Flesh 无辜的肉
Short film Competition 1
Year of Production 2025
Production Countries/Regions China
Duration 22 mins
Genres Drama Horror Fantasy LGBTQ+
Dialogue Language(s) Mandarin Hokkien
Subtitle Language(s) Chinese and English
Director(s) Yihan Lin
Director’s Bio
Yihan Lin is a filmmaker based in Shanghai. Her works blur the boundaries between fiction, documentary, and experimental cinema, investigating subtle human relations in contemporary contexts. Her films have been presented internationally at Slamdance Film Festival, Grilla 3° Lima Alterna Festival, Minikino Film Week, among others. Her recent short Sojourn to Shangri-La (2023) was selected for Berlinale Shorts 2024 and received multiple festival awards. She is also an alumna of the 2025 Locarno Filmmakers Academy.
Synopsis
Echoing the myth of Chen Jinggu in southern China—a goddess who sacrificed herself to protect women in childbirth—the film traces a woman’s pregnancy as it awakens limitless possibilities, surfacing in her dreams that blur memory and prophecy. She envisions an alternate birth of herself, an intimate bond with another woman, and her body’s resonance with nature. When her ex-husband reappears with a cancer diagnosis, reality fractures. Pregnancy becomes a realm where folklore and flesh collide, confronting her with cycles of creation, loss, and rebirth.
Festivals & Awards
2025 6th Mulan International Film Festival
2025 VITA Shorts
2025 9th Beijing International Short Film Festival
Scriptwriter(s)
Yihan Lin
Producer(s)
Yuwen Li, Hattie Yu, Qiancheng (Robert) Guo
Executive Producer(s)
Key Casts
Oubu Xu, Jijun Miao, Du Bai
Curators’ note
Inspired by Chen Jinggu, the goddess of safe childbirth worshipped in director Lin’s native Fuzhou, Innocent Flesh traces the bodily transformations of a woman following IVF conception, and the shifting, reconfigured relationships that emerge between her female partner, ex-husband, and unborn child.
Pregnancy disrupts the linear order of time, drawing the narrative into a dreamlike register in which the boundaries between past and present gradually dissolve, and memory begins to gesture toward multiple future possibilities. As the camera moves ever closer to the pregnant body, it becomes increasingly entwined with the humid, fluid natural environment of a southern fishing village. Within this process, the female body comes quietly into view, along with the complex relations of reproduction, parenthood, and queer experience that gather around it. (Viv Wang, Xiyun Li edited)
Director’s Statement
