Banana in a Nutshell

New Zealand 2005, 55+30 minutes
Dir. Roseanne Liang
In English, Mandarin with English subtitles
Rating: [PG]
Genres: Documentary

Topics: Indigenous & Minority Cultures.

Feat. Roseanne Liang

Aroview: Having fallen in love with a white New Zealand boy, 27-year-old Liang turns the camera on herself in this thoroughly intimate self-account of the struggle to gain acceptance from traditional Chinese parents.

Heartfelt, brave, and unabashedly romantic, Liang's shows great sensitivity in balancing her ambitions as a film-maker with her vulnerability as a subject. Her original film succeeds in its own terms, but it's only with the bonus 30-minute epilogue (made especially for the DVD) that she gets the whole story in a nutshell.

NZ International Film Festival 2005