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MISTRESS DISPELLER  

OFFICIAL SELECTION | FEATURE DOC

BYRON PREMIERE

GENRE: DOCUMENTARY | YEAR OF PRODUCTION: 2024 | LENGTH: 94 MIN | COUNTRY: CHINA

DIRECTOR: ELIZABETH LO | PRODUCERS: ELIZABETH LO, EMMA MILLER + MAGGIE LI

Desperate to save her marriage, a woman in China hires a professional to go undercover and break up her husband’s affair. With strikingly intimate access, Mistress Dispeller follows this unfolding family drama from all corners of a love triangle.

In China, a new industry has emerged devoted to helping couples stay married in the face of infidelity. Wang Zhenxi is part of this growing profession, a “mistress dispeller” who is hired to maintain the bonds of marriage - and break up affairs - by any means necessary. Offering strikingly intimate access to private dramas usually hidden behind closed doors, Mistress Dispeller follows a real, unfolding case of infidelity as Teacher Wang attempts to bring a couple back from the edge of crisis. Their story shifts our sympathies between husband, wife and mistress to explore the ways emotion, pragmatism and cultural norms collide to shape romantic relationships in contemporary China.

In Mandarin with English subtitles