Tiger’s Head, Nail’s Tail: Yours Faithfully, dir. Serene Hui 許思樂, Hong Kong, Thailand, Netherlands 2025, no dialogue with English subtitles, 28 min.
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Hong Kong Film Festival UK 2026
Across generations, migration takes many forms: the quiet rooting of a plant, the courage to leave and return, the written word as a thread that binds people across distance and separation.
This programme traces experiences of migration across different times and places – people who arrived in Hong Kong, and those who later left it for the UK – allowing conversations around home and identity to unfold from narrative cinema into documentary and artist moving images.
Beginning with the perspectives of women filmmakers, we move across borders and geographies, following the ways in which people leave, return, adapt, and take root again.
Followed by in-person discussion with the filmmakers.
Programme
The First Photograph 第一張照片
Hong Kong | 2024 | Colour | 11’ | No Dialogue with Chinese and English subtitles
Dir.: Jess Lau Ching-wa 劉清華
UK Premiere
The film depicts the story of the artist's father, who fled to Hong Kong in the 70s. The video is presented in a series of overlays and montages, initially taken from one of her father's documentary photographs, and then combined with Google Maps to retrace the route of his escape from China, as well as newspaper articles and radio broadcasts from 1978 to 1980.
as a bird that briefly perches
Hong Kong, UK | 2024/2025 | Colour | 17’ | In Cantonese with Chinese and English subtitles
Dir.: Dorothy Cheung 張紫茵
A cinematic diary weaves Hong Kong's geology, greenhouse gardening, and UK migrant farmers' lives, exploring rooting, re-rooting, and growing amid shifting land-human dynamics.
Homecoming and Going 逆留
Hong Kong, UK | 2025 | Colour | 19’ | In Cantonese and English with Chinese and English subtitles
Dir.: Kristie Ko 高思約
An apartment is handed over between old friends. It is Emily and Vincent’s first day in London, and Megan’s last day before returning to Hong Kong. As Emily and Vincent
start their new life, Megan bids farewell to the people and places she has grown to call home.
The Heart of Lion 赤子獅心
Hong Kong, UK | 2026 | Colour | 20’ | In English with Chinese and English subtitles
Dir.: Rosanna Lee 李柔萱
This film accompanies Kelvin Chan, a British-born Chinese lion dancer, as he moves through the arenas of his life as a committed student of lion dance and martial arts: the sports hall, the home, Chinatown, the ancestral village, the Tin Hau festival Hong Kong.
Tiger’s Head, Nail’s Tail: Yours Faithfully
Hong Kong, Thailand, Netherlands | 2025 | Colour | 28’ | No Dialogue with English subtitles
Dir.: Serene Hui 許思樂
UK Premiere
The essay film is a montage of conversations with Hui’s grandfather with archival material and footage from migration sites. Through this lens, the film explores the trust and time involved in historical letter transmission versus contemporary communication, reframing the act of transcribing to illuminate the emotional and political contours of a momentous displacement.
Across generations, migration takes many forms: the quiet rooting of a plant, the courage to leave and return, the written word as a thread that binds people across distance and separation.
This programme traces experiences of migration across different times and places – people who arrived in Hong Kong, and those who later left it for the UK – allowing conversations around home and identity to unfold from narrative cinema into documentary and artist moving images.
Beginning with the perspectives of women filmmakers, we move across borders and geographies, following the ways in which people leave, return, adapt, and take root again.
Followed by in-person discussion with the filmmakers.
Programme
The First Photograph 第一張照片
Hong Kong | 2024 | Colour | 11’ | No Dialogue with Chinese and English subtitles
Dir.: Jess Lau Ching-wa 劉清華
UK Premiere
The film depicts the story of the artist's father, who fled to Hong Kong in the 70s. The video is presented in a series of overlays and montages, initially taken from one of her father's documentary photographs, and then combined with Google Maps to retrace the route of his escape from China, as well as newspaper articles and radio broadcasts from 1978 to 1980.
as a bird that briefly perches
Hong Kong, UK | 2024/2025 | Colour | 17’ | In Cantonese with Chinese and English subtitles
Dir.: Dorothy Cheung 張紫茵
A cinematic diary weaves Hong Kong's geology, greenhouse gardening, and UK migrant farmers' lives, exploring rooting, re-rooting, and growing amid shifting land-human dynamics.
Homecoming and Going 逆留
Hong Kong, UK | 2025 | Colour | 19’ | In Cantonese and English with Chinese and English subtitles
Dir.: Kristie Ko 高思約
An apartment is handed over between old friends. It is Emily and Vincent’s first day in London, and Megan’s last day before returning to Hong Kong. As Emily and Vincent
start their new life, Megan bids farewell to the people and places she has grown to call home.
The Heart of Lion 赤子獅心
Hong Kong, UK | 2026 | Colour | 20’ | In English with Chinese and English subtitles
Dir.: Rosanna Lee 李柔萱
This film accompanies Kelvin Chan, a British-born Chinese lion dancer, as he moves through the arenas of his life as a committed student of lion dance and martial arts: the sports hall, the home, Chinatown, the ancestral village, the Tin Hau festival Hong Kong.
Tiger’s Head, Nail’s Tail: Yours Faithfully
Hong Kong, Thailand, Netherlands | 2025 | Colour | 28’ | No Dialogue with English subtitles
Dir.: Serene Hui 許思樂
UK Premiere
The essay film is a montage of conversations with Hui’s grandfather with archival material and footage from migration sites. Through this lens, the film explores the trust and time involved in historical letter transmission versus contemporary communication, reframing the act of transcribing to illuminate the emotional and political contours of a momentous displacement.
Presented in partnership Amnesty International UK(AIUK)
Book tickets
Thu, 01 Oct 2026
Cinema 1
06:15 pm
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Cinema 1
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All films are ad-free and 18+ unless otherwise stated, and start with a 10 min. curated selection of trailers.
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