Lau, Flora (劉韻文)

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Lau, Flora – Critical Biography Top

Flora Lau attended Phillips Exeter Academy and studied applied mathematics and economics at Columbia University before working as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. She quit her job after a few years and studied filmmaking at the London Film School, where she graduated with distinction in 2009. Her thesis film Dry Rain (2009) – concerning the relationship between a young man and the Filipino domestic worker employed by his wealthy family – won Best Film at the Hong Kong Fresh Wave Short Film Competition. Lau was invited to take part in the 8^th Berlinale Talent Campus organized by the 2010 Berlin Film Festival, but it was not until her feature-length screenplay Bends (Hong Kong Film Financing Forum, HAF, 2011) attracted the attention of multimedia personality Yu Tsang and veteran producer Nansun Shi that Lau was afforded the opportunity to make her feature film debut. Telling the tale of an upper-class housewife or tai tai who loses her bearings when her husband goes missing and she loses her source of financial support, Bends also relates the story of her chauffeur, a young man from Mainland China who crosses the border to Hong Kong for work and a father-to-be whose wife is pregnant and plans on giving birth in Hong Kong in order for their child to obtain legal residency in the HKSAR. Lau was able to assemble a top-notch cast and crew for Bends: the cinematographer on board was Christopher Doyle, while the leads were played by the great Hong Kong actress Carina Lau and Mainland China’s Aloys Chen Kun. In 2013, it was announced that Bends was selected as part of the Un Certain Regard section of the 66^th Cannes Film Festival. While it did not win any awards at Cannes, the film nevertheless received a warm welcome from the press, with much praise from the critics in particular for the lead performance by Carina Lau. The film was released in Hong Kong later that year, and Lau subsequently won the Best Actress award at the 2014 Osaka Asian Film Festival.

Filmography Top

Feature Films:

Role	Title (English)	Title (Chinese)	Year
Director	Bends (Trailer)	過界	2013

Shorts:

Role	Title (English)	Title (Chinese)	Year
Director	Start from Zero	N/A	2012
Cinematographer	Random Strangers	N/A	2011
Director Writer	Dry Rain	N/A	2009
Director Writer	12:30	N/A	2008