One of the highlights of the 2022 Berlinale’s Encounters sidebar was Ashley McKenzie’s Queens of the Qing Dynasty. Following the Canadian filmmaker’s first feature, Werewolf, Queens tracks the friendship between Star (Sarah Walker), a young neurodiverse woman entering adulthood, and An (Ziyin Zheng), a hospital volunteer who’s assigned to monitor her after a suicide attempt. Working in tandem with Walker and Zheng’s extraordinary performances, McKenzie creates a rhythm that is both regulated and disorienting, and one which keenly reflects Star’s state of mind. We caught up with McKenzie earlier this month following the film’s New York release.
Published as part of InRO Weekly — Volume 1, Issue 20.
