The Botanist

The wind bellows and glides across golden blades of grass in the sun-drenched valleys of Xinjiang, on the northern border between Kazakhstan and China. Arsin is a young Kazakh boy with a deep passion for the flora and fauna around him, giving keen attention to plants and all of their beguiling details. When he meets Meiyu, a spirited Han Chinese girl, she evokes the same feelings of enchantment that he experiences with the botanical beauty that surrounds him. What unfolds between Arsin and Meiyu is a magical-realist fantasy that speaks volumes about our ephemeral and ethereal ties to our wondrous world. In his directorial debut, Jing Yi engages a cast of non-actors and a real-world setting to produce a spellbinding representation of a forgotten land and its people, whose deep connection with nature offers meaningful lessons to live by. —Jordan Klein