ND/NF ’25: Stranger

In China, your hotel room is considered a public area rather than a private space. That is not my hyperbole. Those are the words of two cops conducting a snap inspection in this film. The comparative privacy of hotel rooms is important in this film, because every scene is set in a very different rented room, which together create a complex mosaic of Chinese society in Yang Zengfan’s Stranger, which screens during this year’s New Directors/New Films.

Everyone is a stranger in a hotel, unless its Fawlty Towers. You might be better off with Basil Fawlty’s chaotic staff, considering the housekeeper in the opening longshot vignette, who does her cleaning while wearing a guest’s flight attendant uniform.

Perhaps the best scene follows, in a much dingier room. Those are the temporary quarters shared by the two men a pair of police officers have come to investigate. However, they instinctively understand the best defense is a good offense, so they do their best to disrupt the interrogatory process. The cops cannot even explain why they are here, but viewers will soon infer their suspected transgression might be sexual in nature. Regardless, this is by far the tensest, most dramatic segment of Stranger, which directly compares to the Iranian film Terrestrial Verses, both in terms of theme and potency.

Unfortunately, other segments are not as well served by Yang’s static camera placement and long takes. Sometimes it works brilliantly, as when the restlessly panning camera reveals why the groom looks so miserable at his own wedding reception. The sequence following a disgraced Chinese influencer live-streaming her endlessly extended COVID-quarantine also vividly recreates the grim, lonely realities of ‘Covid-Zero” China, but it just continues the sense of ennui rather than building into a memorable statement.

Perhaps the second most pointed episode captures a pregnant woman and her husband the night before she leaves for America as a delivery-tourist. They express nothing but contempt for our country and its values, yet they are going to great lengths to secure their unborn child’s birthright citizenship. You would almost think this was a MAGA-directed segment, which earns Yang great credit for artistic integrity.

Regrettably, some segments just do not land with much force, like the only segment set in the United States. It captures the preparations of a Chinese man who works as a costumed street performer, like the Marvel superheroes you often see posing with tourists in Times Square. However, it must be tough to attract selfie tips with his Monkey King outfit.

Stranger is undeniably uneven, but the best parts are deeply insightful and equally riveting. Yang’s austere aesthetic approach will challenge many viewers, but it least it reflects a serious, well-thought-out concept. Recommended to cineastes for the way it holds up a mirror to some contemporary Chinese attitudes and social conventions, Stranger screens tomorrow (4/6) and Tuesday (4/8), as part of ND/NF ’25.