Li revisits Venice with dramatic takes on women's perspectives

Mainland director Li Yu deals with women's odd affections in life: love and hate between two lesbians, an amoral relationship between mother and son. Not that she sees them as peculiar.

'To be honest, I don't think they are strange,' she says. 'I guess it's because I have seen too many strange things in life when making documentaries. Life is always full of dramatic elements, which films can never match.'

Li, 31, spent six years making documentaries for the state-run China Central Television (CCTV). One told the tale of a six-year-old girl considering suicide because - being the elder sister of her twin brother - she was worried about having to shoulder more responsibilities.

Tall and fair-complexioned, Li's long hair falls over her curvy body, which is enclosed in a sporty sleeveless shirt and low waist jeans. She looks feminine. 'I'm not a feminist, demanding absolute equality with men,' she says, 'but I'm concerned with women's issues and I would like to tell stories about them from a woman's perspective.'

It's a far cry from her predecessors in the first three decades after 1949, when female directors were few on the mainland and macho-dramas about battles and political leaders dominated the big screen. But as society has progressed, an increasing number of women have moved into the director's chair and begun to air their own voices.

As a rising star of the new generation of female directors, Li has been attracting attention with her feature films telling about the changes for mainland women since the 1980s. Her latest work, Dam Street, relates the story of a woman and her 10-year-old son whom she was forced to abandon when she was an unmarried high school student in 1983. The film is competing at the Venice International Film Festival, which started on Wednesday, in the Horizons section showcasing new trends in the cinema.