Fish and Elephant

A favourite on the lesbian-and-gay festival circuit, Li Yu's underground feature (her debut) has a tangible gust of reality blowing through it. Xiao Qun is an elephant keeper at Beijing Zoo and her lover Xiao Ling flogs clothes in an indoor market. Their stable relationship hits two obstacles: the arrival of Qun's divorced mother, who has no idea her daughter is lesbian and foists on her a string of prospective husbands, and the reappearance of Qun's ex-girlfriend Junjun, on the run from the cops after killing her abusive father. Nothing here to surprise western viewers used to frank treatment of gay issues, but plenty to enjoy in the way Li uses locations and integrates the plot and characters in shrewd observation of Beijing's street-life.