The Mosuo Sisters (Marlo Poras, 2012): China

Reviewed by Emma Karlsson. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

The Mosuo Sisters is a Chinese documentary, directed by Marlo Poras. The film had its west coast premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

The story follows two sisters, Juma and Latso. Juma and Latso are from a family that are one of the few remaining Mosuo families. Mosuo is a small Chinese matriarchal society that are well-known in china, but nevertheless is a society that is slowly vanishing. Juma and Latso are the bigger sisters in their family, and in order to make money for their mother and siblings they have left their home to work in Beijing. However, the bar that they work at are forced to close down and the sisters have no choice but to return to their farm in the rural village close to the Himalayas.

The film serves an educational purpose when it comes to showing the different aspects of the Mosuo culture. But perhaps more important is the documentary’s focus on the two sisters relationship, and their individual dreams for themselves. Both Juma and Latso have dreams for the future that do not involve living with their mom in a farming community; they have gotten used to the modern city life – but they also know that family comes first. Their mother sends away Juma to work again in order to support the family, but Latso has to stay behind and help out at the farm. Depressed over the fact that she can never work within accounting like she dreamed of, life works in mysterious ways and both sisters find a balance between being a modern girl with big dreams and being a part of an old, traditional culture.

The editing pace of The Mosuo Sisters is perfectly put together. It’s a great mix of the sisters traveling on the roads leading to the Himalayas, the almost claustrophobic shots of Juma working as an entertainer at different clubs while smiling like her life depended on it (which it sort of does) and the farming shots of Latso who’s slowly realizing that her dreams will never come true; that she has to focus on other dreams. The film is about being stuck in traditions, and how complex the feeling is of loving your family and your culture, but at the same time having “what if” feelings. All in all, The Mosuo Sisters is a nice documentary with the great variation of emotions – from being content and to wanting more – all of which we meet in our everyday lives.