Montreal, My Beautiful Montréal, Ma Belle

Film

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Feature Film

A Chinese immigrant and mother embarks on a journey of forbidden love in this landmark work starring Joan Chen.

Information

Programme History

Part of Queer East Festival 2026

Director: Xiaodan He
Runtime: 118 Mins
Year: 2025
Country: Canada

Feng Xia, a Chinese immigrant and mother living in Montréal, lives a life shaped by duty: to her family, her culture, and a loveless marriage. But when she meets Camille, a spirited young Québécoise, long-buried desires are awakened. In the balmy Montréal summer, Feng Xia takes the radical step of choosing herself, embarking on a journey of forbidden love and overdue self-discovery. In one of the boldest turns in her career, screen icon Joan Chen (The Last Emperor, Twin Peaks, Saving Face) delivers a haunting performance as a woman whose awakening leads to a profound reckoning with identity, exile, and the cost of liberation. A landmark in queer Asian diaspora cinema, Montréal, Ma Belle explores the paradoxes at the heart of immigrant life.