The award winning film 'Letter from An Unknown Woman', directed by Xu Jinglei, is making an impact on Chinese audiences.

'Letter from An Unknown Woman' is adapted from a novel of the same name written by Austrian writer Stefan Zweig.

Director, Xu Jinglei, transplants the story to the background of Beijing in 1940s.

The film depicts the moving love story of a woman who secretly loves a romantic writer from childhood. She falls pregnant and, after delivering their child, raises the boy all by herself and is forgotten by the man she loved.

It is not until the loss of her son that this woman writes a long letter to her former lover before she dies.

The movie was an emotional experience for director, Xu Jinglei.

"It was back in college when I first read this novel and my tears wet the pillow. At that time, I read it as a novel about a faithful love being cheated. Ten years later, when I read it again I discovered something more in it – something about the life, the soul, and the great helplessness of people. I think this is a major reason I wanted to shoot this film."

There are a great number of psychological descriptions in the novel, which were turned into delicate and aesthetic images on the screen.

Last year,‘Letter from An Unknown Woman' won "Altadis – Best New Director" at Spain's prestigious Sebastian Film Festival.

Thirty-year-old Xu Jinglei graduated from Performing Department of Beijing Film Academy.

She's not the type of actress who impresses you with her attractiveness but with her fresh and natural manner.

So far, she has appeared in dozen films.

However, Xu Jinglei was never satisfied with only being an actress.

In her opinion, an actress means a lot of long waiting for a good screenplay and a good director.

In 2002, she released her maiden work ‘I and Papa', a realistic film that depicts the vague and changing emotions between father and daughter in a broken family.

Xu Jinglei prefers directing to acting and is confident of producing excellent work.

"Now directing is more important to me. I could shoot a film that is both artistic and commercial. I like watching British and French films, and also the Hollywood blockbusters. The shooting practices of film are what we can see the key is how and where you apply those practices."

Xu Jinglei says, her directing career seems much smoother than her acting career..

After ‘I and Papa' and ‘Letter from An Unknown Woman', Xu Jinglei has three others films she's working on.

One is about ancient China, one she is currently writing a script for herself, and the other is one of the films that the U.S. invited directors from ten countries to record in the U.S. after 911.

None of the screenplays for these films is yet complete.

The director says she will start shoot whichever one has a finished screenplay first.

Anyway, all the films of this talented director are worth seeing. They are always artistic and often surprising.

(CRI news)

transplant: to move (a plant) from one place and plant it in another（移栽，移植）

shoot: make a film or photograph of something（拍攝）