Photo: © Umbrella Ma’am Studio / Flamingo in the Garden
Flamingo in the Garden
Inspired by director Xinhui Ma’s own life experience, this animated short film follows a young Chinese woman confined to a hospital bed in Morocco after a surfing accident. Isolated by language barriers, physical pain, and the unfamiliarity of her surroundings, she begins to find comfort in the garden outside her window. Blending personal memory, surreal imagery, and reflections on gender, sexuality, and cultural displacement, the film turns a period of recovery into a dreamlike emotional journey. The Girl moves from a morphine-induced fantasy world into a darker inner landscape, gradually reconnecting with her body and reclaiming herself after physical trauma. Through this process, she confronts dependency, vulnerability, and desire, and finally reaches a sense of freedom.






