The screening on 8 August will be followed by an online Q&A with the director Mabel Cheung, moderated by the season curator Millie Zhou.

The Illegal Immigrant is the feature debut of Mabel Cheung and the first instalment of her acclaimed 'Migration Trilogy' (along with An Autumn’s Tale and Eight Taels of Gold), earning her the Best Director award at the Hong Kong Film Awards while also achieving commercial success. Inspired by the observations she and her career-long screenwriting partner Alex Law made while studying in New York, the film employs a cast from a non-acting background, offering a poignant reflection on the promises and failures of the American Dream.

Set in New York’s Chinese immigrant community, the story follows an undocumented immigrant who enters a sham marriage in hopes of obtaining legal status. As the arrangement develops into genuine love, dreams of stability collide with the harsh realities of economic hardship, legal precarity, and social exclusion. Through its portrait of immigrant lives, the film captures a profound sense of rootlessness and uncertain identity, weaving together the diverse experiences, aspirations, and struggles of the Chinese diaspora in America.

© Licensed by Celestial Pictures Limited. All rights reserved.

Supported by the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office London.

Cast:
Yung-Cho Ching, Fu-Sheng Wu, Laurie Lynd