01 / 05
01 / 05
The Half-Finished Heaven
米点云山
LIU Huizhi
- 92 min
- 2025
- Fiction
- Southern Shandong Dialect
- English Subtitles
North American Premiere
Zao (LIU Huizhi) quits his job to search for ancient Tang-era wooden architecture and vanishes. His father, Lei, devastated, drinks himself into a coma. In his dreams, the ancient city is being rebuilt, while Zao, unemployed, follows his maternal grandfather in crafting paper houses for the dead and becomes obsessed with a manuscript titled The Invisible City. As the family reunites amid unrest, memories and illusions blur––until a new house rises, marked “Auspicious Beam,” and Lei catches the aroma of wine.
Director
LIU Huizhi is a filmmaker from Juzhou, Shandong, and a graduate of the Literature Department of Beijing Film Academy. Working independently since graduation, his films explore rural spaces, personal memory, and the transformations of contemporary China, often blending reality with dreams and allegory. His mid-length film The King of Beasts Goes Upstairs (2023) was selected for the NEUTRON section of the 7th Beijing International Short Film Festival. His debut feature The Half-Finished Heaven (2025) premiered at the 19th FIRST International Film Festival and was selected for the International Competition at the 37th FIDMarseille.
Credits
- DirectorLIU Huizhi
- Principal CastCHEN Xuanyu, LIU Shiping, LIU Huajun, LIU Huizhi,
- ProducerZHANG Meng
- ScreenplayLIU Huizhi
- CinematographerTENG Fei
- EditorLIU Huizhi
- SoundLIU Huizhi