A quietly compelling and measured portrait of a life marked by migration, displacement and crime, From Dawn to Dawn (La noche de la infancia) – the debut feature of Xisi Sofia Ye Chen – offers an unsentimental look at an older brother who, after operating for years as a gangster, resolves to confront his past and consider a profound change of direction.
As the director notes. “When we were kids, we watched the gangster films from Hong Kong’s golden era together. When we grew up, my older brother became a gangster. I became a filmmaker.”
Though it adopts a fly-on-the-wall approach, the film maintains a deliberate distance: the siblings rarely engage with one another, and Chen’s restrained, monotone voice-over provides context—never judgement—on a life that started with street vending before drifting into gambling, loan-sharking, and gang violence.
From Dawn to Dawn opens in gloomy darkness. Chen states how it is the end of February in Fangshan District in China, where the trees are starting to turn green, and that her brother A Wen, (who has returned to his homeland) “was born at the foot of the mountain, by this temple.” She was born 10 years later after her parents emigrated to Spain. This is the first New Year they’ve spent together in China.
This opening section of the film sees A Wen chopping wood, working the lands and sitting in meditation. A religious master stresses to him that “to be reborn he must dare to forget.”
Xisi Sofia Ye Chen recalls how her brother would rent Cantonese gangster films from a Barcelona store while looking after her, eventually becoming a criminal himself, determined to live life on the edge. She says he became “a hero from the films we used to watch.”
The film returns to Spain as Chen follows the daily life of her brother, a man now caught in a world of edgy criminality where depression and insomnia are openly discussed by men over food and cigarettes, and where Feng Shui masters are consulted to rethink the energies when A Wen decides to restructure his restaurant as a way of finding a new and fresh direction. He concedes he feels more at ease after spending time in China – not so driven towards making big deals.
In her debut, director Chen adopts a delicate position and tone, balancing close-up footage and discreet access to the world of her brother, but all shot with a sense of distance, often through glass and misted screens, lending an almost Taoist tone to the unsentimental narrative. Never judging or offering a direct opinion, her film is simply about a man caught between a criminal legacy, loyalty, family responsibilities – and now in search of a moral compass. All the time, his boyish face is hard to read, blessed with a gentle smile, but also a sense of firmness and renewed conviction.
Spain-France, 2026, 93mins
Dir/scr: Xisi Sofia Ye Chen
Producers: Ricard Sales, Pedro Palacios, Luis Ferron, Marta Lacima, Leonor Abreu, Ran Shao, Camilla Montaldo, Marina Perales Marhuenda, Xavier Rocher
Sales Contact: Parallax Film Sales
Production: LaCima Producciones, The South Project, La Fabrica Nocturna Cinéma
Cinematography: Pablo Paloma
Editor: Juliana Montañés
Music: Lukas Mathias, Román Daniel
