Kotti Express
Year: TBA
Duration: TBD
Country: Germany
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Comedy
Technical: 4K DCI | Color | 5.1 Surround Sound
Set in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district, JayJay (JJ) follows a queer immigrant adrift in the city’s underbelly. By day, JJ works at a kebab shop; by night, she disappears into techno, drugs, and anonymous encounters. Disconnected from her past and her mentally ill mother back in China, JJ moves through life in a haze—until a local policewoman begins showing up, buying a single can of Ayran every day. What begins as a cryptic exchange soon unravels into a quiet, haunted entanglement.
Through eerie gestures, locked doors, and unspoken grief, JJ explores loneliness, ritual, and the thin line between care and obsession. Grimy and tender, the film drifts between cold reality and psychological haze, tracing two women—both fractured, both searching—for meaning in the wreckage of loss.
Work in progress: developing a short POC into a feature film.
Director's Statement
My inspiration for creating this film stems from several sources, with one being Yun Huang. Ever since I met her, I have been eager to write a screenplay that showcases her unique, positive, and intricate personality and complex life story, as well as her impressive talent and experience as an actress. For a significant period of time, I have been searching for the right story, until I was reminded of one of my all-time favorite films.
I first watched Chungking Express, the 1994 masterpiece by Wong Kar Wai, together with my ex-partner, who originally came from Chungking, China. As our relationship became increasingly abusive, it culminated in an excruciating break-up. I have lived through all that as a newly arrived expat in the melting pot of Kreuzberg, Berlin, hustling my way through its intensity, possibilities, anonymity, alienation, which makes the process both easier and impossibly hard at the same time. I then visited the filming location of Wong's film, Chungking Mansions, a bustling place situated in the heart of Hong Kong, full of diverse immigrant cultures, halal foods, and cheap goods. It felt just like my Kreuzberg! One day, from my Kreuzberg balcony, I was watching the familiar kebab shop next to the locksmith's store across the street. That is when my experiences of Hong Kong, my bittersweet memories of my first years in Berlin and of Chungking Express, and my new friend Yun all began to merge and grow into the story of Kotti Express.
In terms of the style and narrative structure, there will be some echoes of Wong‘s film but only as very subtle “Easter eggs”. Lots of handheld cinematography and improvisation. But rather than merely paying homage, I want to use this quirky, strange story to explore the burning questions of our generation: those about isolation, about connection happening in the most unlikely of ways, about worlds coexisting without ever touching, until there is the willingness and courage to cross the line, to burst the bubble, and the transformative power that arises from that.
I aim to have a significant number of the crew members from the Hong Kong community in Berlin. While telling the story of all people searching for belonging, I hope this film will serve as a voice especially for Hong Kongers (and Chinese) living in exile, in Berlin, which has become a haven for so many refugees, nomads, free spirits and untamed voices from the entire world.