Brief History of A Family

China’s strict one-child policy may have been rescinded in Protected content , but how this population planning initiative continues to pervade the country’s growing middle-class is scrutinised in Lin Jianjie’s remarkably assured debut feature. Brief History Of A Family examines how the fragile bonds of an outwardly perfect family of three are tested when the son’s mysterious classmate becomes a defacto fourth member.

John Berra, Screen Daily

Elevated by its consistent visual inventiveness, Chinese writer-director Jianjie Lin’s suspenseful drama Brief History of a Family could appear, at first glance, as a clear-cut case of a cunning infiltrator wreaking havoc in an unsuspecting household. Yet the closer we observe, the more it reveals itself as a tale of wish fulfillment for everyone involved. No doubt comparisons to Saltburn, The Killing of a Sacred Deer or The Talented Mr. Ripley will abound, but what Lin conceived is far more subcutaneous, with a sobering tone and disinterested in building up to a grand plot twist — though the resolution is unexpected.

Carlos Aguilar, Variety