BARBIE
short • drama • 11 minutes • China • 2025
COMING SOON
COMING SOON
LOGLINE
A son tries to please his aging parents in a house where tradition, obedience, and absurdity collapse into one deadly game of make-believe.
SYNOPSIS
In a decaying old courtyard house in northern China, a middle-aged man returns to visit his parents, only to be greeted with disappointment and emotional blackmail. Their obsession with lineage, legacy, and filial performance soon escalates into a grotesque theater of expectations. When verbal pressure fails, the son performs a fake suicide, and later, an even more disturbing act: he pretends to be the infant grandson his parents have always demanded.
FESTIVAL STATUS & APPEARANCES
PREMIERE STATUS
World premiere available.
IN CONSIDERATION
Currently in consideration for several international film festivals.
DIRECTOR / PRODUCER AVAILABILITY
Update will be posted soon.
CREW Q&A PANEL
Update will be posted soon.
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DIRECTOR BIO
Dawan Ma (马大湾) is a Chinese filmmaker, novelist and screenwriter born in Shenyang in 1987. After studying mathematics at the Technical University of Berlin, he turned to storytelling to expose the violence beneath ritual, identity and family silence.
His feature Nine Iron was selected by Tokyo Lift‑Off Film Festival 2021, while The Chocolate selected at Flickers’ Rhode Island Film Festival 2021.
Completed in 2025, US THEM — twelve‑part anthology with collaborators from China and Spain (including shorts Barbie and Live a Hundred Years) — continues his precise exploration of local yet global human experience.
PREVIOUS FESTIVAL SELECTIONS:
Tokyo Lift‑Off Film Festival 2021,
Flickers’ Rhode Island Film Festival 2021
DIRECTOR / PRODUCER AVAILABILITY
Update will be posted soon.
PRODUCTION DETAILS
CAST & CREW
Written & Directed by
Dawan Ma
Cinematography by
Wei Liu
Music by
Pancho Burgos-Goizueta
Starring:
Zhiqiang Zou, Lixia Liu, Fenqiang Wang, Qingzhu Yang
MAGNIFIER PRODUCTION, CH
WITH CO-PRODUCTION AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT BY ORNUMA, FR
(VERTICAL & SOCIAL MEDIA)
COMPOSER SPAIN / LA
Pancho Burgos-Goizueta is born in Madrid, Spain. Graduated from Berklee College of Music, majoring in Film Scoring and Composition. Winner of the 2015 ASCAP David Rose Award, ASCAP Film Scoring Fellow, and selected as a member of the Hollywood Film Scoring Conducting Fellow in 2017. He contributed music department work to Disney's High School Musical 2" and "High School Musical 3: Senior Year". Recent feature credit include composing the full score for Lionsgate’s drama "Ordinary Angels" (2024, starring Oscar winner Hilary Swank).
MAIN WORKS
2025 The Unbreakable Boy
2025 US THEM
2024 Ordinary Angels
2020 Killing Diaz
2019 Master Servant
2011 Teen Wolf
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE WINNER
Boston Independent FF, Garden State FF, European Cinematography Awards (ECA), IndieX FF, Oregon Short FF, Solaris FF
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