Feuille (Leaf)

I have no idea why I selected Feuille, a film in French and Mandarin,  to watch last night, but I was intrigued with the fact that the screenplay was written by a scientist, Youxin Yang. She also directed the movie and was the star of the movie. Here is Dr. Yang's IMDB biography:

"Dr. Youxin Yang, M.D., Ph.D. is an award-winning scientist, award-winning painter, and award-winning filmmaker."
"Youxin started her career in China and then advanced her education in France where she was awarded a prize from the Association for the Study of Pediatric Pathology in 2000 for her work on the WT1 Gene.
"She was a Grand Jury Award winner at the New York International Art Festival, 2005."

As you can see, she is a renaissance lady. So what is the storyline of Feuille.

The Chinese painter Meihua (Youxin Yang) follows her fiancé Aran (Hongwu Chen) to Paris to be inspired by the city to study painting. One day, she paints a picture on the banks of the Seine where she meets a photographer, Stephanie (Sabine Bail). Stephanie is a successful art photographer and despite the language barrier, the two women immediately understand each other. Both pursue their art with similar goals, and this chance meeting results in a close friendship. Stephanie is called "Feuille", which means "Leaf", by Meihua. Stephanie is a lesbian who falls in love with Meihua, a petite Chinese woman who does not understand the advances of her new friend.

In Meihua Chinese culture homosexuality is a disease. Things are further complicated because her fiance Aran is not pleased about the growing intimacy of the friendship between the two women. That is all I am going to say.

If you are open-minded and like to see an intellectual movie, then I recommend this movie.