The Nettle

A boy is looking for cicadas on mundane summer day which is haunted by the shadow of death.

Returning home after years away, Li Yi expects only to endure her mother's pyramid scheme award ceremony. But as the day's carefully staged celebration unfolds, her certainty begins to crack. Embarrassment slowly gives way to curiosity, then compassion, as she discovers what her mother has truly been searching for. Against the glittering spectacle of false promises, Birdie O Birdie explores the fragile distance between judgment and understanding, and the quiet possibility of reconciliation.