The 2017 Hong Kong Asian Film Festival will open on October 31 with the world premiere of Hong Kong relationship drama In Your Dreams, produced by and starring award-winning actress Carina Lau Kar-ling in one of its two leading roles, organisers announced on Monday.

Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Tam Wai-ching, the story revolves around the burgeoning relationship between a secondary school student (played by Ng Siu-hin, She Remembers, He Forgets ) who lives with his alcoholic father (Tung Wai), and his new class teacher (Lau), whose husband (Tse Kwan-ho) is having an affair with a younger dance instructor (Jennifer Yu Heung-ying, Sisterhood ).

A beneficiary of the second round of the Hong Kong Film Development Council’s First Feature Film Initiative – the first has spawned award winners Mad World and Weeds on Fire , as well as the yet-to-be-released Opus 1 – In Your Dreams also marks a return to low-budget filmmaking for Lau, who starred in Flora Lau Wan-man’s debut, Bends (2013), in between her mega-budget Detective Dee film series commitments.