A striking debut from China’s Qiu Sheng, Suburban Birds is a tantalizing mystery and a bittersweet coming-of-age comedy rolled  into one. Hao (Mason Lee) is part of a team of young engineers called in  to investigate a series of craters that have opened up on the edge of  the city. As he and his team survey the subsiding area, another story is  taking place in the same suburban landscape. A younger boy, also named  Hao, spends long afternoons playing with friends and making mischief  until one-by-one, his playmates start to disappear. As these parallel  stories unfold, the connections between them proliferate and grow  stranger.

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With  virtuosic assurance, Qiu employs distinct styles for each of the two  narrative strands and unites them with a wry and wistful sense of humor.  Suburban Birds is both a reflection on the slippery nature of memory as well as a  comment on China’s rapid urbanization that heralds the arrival of an  exciting new voice. (Cinema Guild)