Palimpsest: The Story of a Name
隱蹟之書：重寫自我

Spanning eight decades and four continents, filmmaker and editor Mary Stephen embarks on a deeply personal investigation into her English surname. Far from a narcissistic exploration, the film uncovers the dissonances and contradictions in heritage—those fundamental, often messy elements that shape identity despite our desire for continuity.

Drawing from her father’s home movies and diaries, family photographs, her own travel footage, fragments of oral history, and archival materials, Stephen constructs a layered narrative where personal memory intersects with collective history. From Hong Kong’s working-class neighborhoods, where schoolteacher Hilda Yik marries laborer Chan Tik-Fong, to Wuhan, where British intellectual Julian Bell engages in a scandalous affair with a prominent Chinese writer, the film traces unlikely crossings across Australia, Canada, UK, and France.

Through these journeys, Mary Stephen traces her family roots, gradually piecing them together amid the upheavals of falling dynasties, colonial era, and the turbulent migration history of the Chinese community. In doing so, she reflects on reinvention, the desire to rewrite one’s story, and the universal impulse to fictionalize the self.

In recognition of her body of work as a filmmaker and editor, we are presenting Mary Stephen with the RED LOTUS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2026. Unfortunately, Mary Stephen’s fragile health is unlikely to allow her to travel to Vienna in person, so we are planning an online conversation with the artist prior to the screening of her film.

Deanne Wong, Executive Director of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, will present the award. 

MARY STEPHEN
Born in Hong Kong, Mary Stephen grew up in Canada and lives in Paris. She was French New Wave director Eric Rohmer’s editor starting from The Aviator’s Wife to his last feature film The Romance of Astrea and Celadon. In the last 15 years, she has worked with documentary and fiction directors from several continents, editing, script-consulting, associate-producing and mentoring. Her filmography as director includes the recently-restored Ombres de Soie (1978), Justcoeur (1980), Vision from the Edge: Breyten Breytenback Painting the Lines (1998), and The Memory of Water (2018). Her latest film Palimpsest: The Story of a Name premiered at Toronto International Film Festival and IDFA.

Sun Apr 26, 2026 | 18:15
Stadtkino
Red Lotus 2026

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France, Hong Kong, Taiwan 2025
108 Min | Color + Black & White | Chinese, English and French with Chinese and English subtitles

Directed by Mary STEPHEN

Palimpsest: The Story of a Name © 24images