Where Branches Part

Together in Melbourne for one last day before she departs for China, a young man and his mother cook, share small conversations, stroll through a botanical garden and simply pass time together. Every moment carries the weight of something slowly slipping away.

Through gentle observations of kitchens, bedrooms and sunlit streets, Where Branches Part reveals the unspoken distance that time creates between parent and child. Shot with restrained, naturalistic imagery and performed by a real-life mother and son, the film is less about events than about time itself: how it passes almost imperceptibly, and how love endures even as closeness fades.

Director bio:

Tian Chenkai is a Chinese-born filmmaker currently based in Melbourne and completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts (Film and Television) at the Victorian College of the Arts. With a background in film and theatre, he focuses on intimate, observational storytelling that quietly explores family, memory and the passage of time. His graduation short film Where Branches Part – in which he performs alongside his real-life mother – reflects his deep reflection on everyday life and family bonds, as well as his interest in blending documentary truth with narrative restraint. Inspired by filmmakers such as Hirokazu Kore-eda and Hou Hsiao-hsien, Chenkai seeks to create films that offer audiences a reflective space, in which the subtleties of ordinary life and the quiet distances between loved ones are rendered with tenderness and quiet power.

Bachelor of Fine Arts (Film and Television)