In a film that blurs the line between Chinese tradition and Spanish youth culture, director Jiajie Yu Yan presents this atmospheric tale of a young woman's sexual awakening aroused by her close female friend. 

Madrid-based actor Chacha Huang plays the role of Xiao Xian, a shrinking violet who adheres to cultural tradition after her mother orders her to complete a last-minute dress alteration at night. As she dutifully stays behind to continue working, her friend Sheng Xia arrives unannounced and convinces her to go out. 

Sheng Xia is radically opposite, she represents the growing number of second generation-born Chinese people in Spain who the director describes as "rebellious, open, uninhibited." 

"I wanted to immerse myself in the Chinese community," says Jiajie Yu Yan, "and tell a story about love, or heartbreak, between two women, which is a subject that is still taboo and censored in China."

Xiao Xian has a sensual soundtrack and voyeuristic filming style that enhances the erotic energy between the two women. The protagonist is subject to an internal conflict between work and desire, tradition and novelty, responsibility and rebellion, repression and liberation, and eastern and western culture.

This blending of opposites manifests in the director's use of the Chinese and Spanish language, masterful manipulation of light and dark, and contrast between red and blue filters—with red serving as a leitmotif for clandestine attraction and passion, and blue carving out a suspended dreamlike space where these desires are expressed.

Not only has this dramatic short been hailed for its mysterious and meditative tone, but Xiao Xian is also the first movie shot in Mandarin to be nominated for Spain's prestigious national film awards—Las Goyas.