ReviewPalimpsest: The Story of a Name movie review – Mary Stephen’s riveting study of identity
Hong Kong-born director Mary Stephen’s documentary explores her obscure heritage against a background of colonialism and self-reinvention
4/5 stars
Best known for her numerous collaborations with French New Wave auteur Eric Rohmer, veteran Hong Kong-born editor and filmmaker Mary Stephen turns the camera on herself in Palimpsest: The Story of a Name, an absorbing and endlessly surprising documentary exploring her obscure heritage.
For as long as she can remember, Stephen has encountered confusion, curiosity and discrimination because of her Western surname. Determined to uncover its origins once and for all, the 73-year-old, who has spent much of her adult life in Paris, delves deep into her own past.
Aided by extensive home-movie footage and intricately detailed journals compiled by her father, Henry Stephen, the filmmaker mounts an enthralling investigation that spans the globe, from Australia to Montreal and back to the place of her birth, Hong Kong.
As the film opens, Mary Stephen acknowledges that she was born the same year as the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, an event celebrated with much pomp, ceremony and bewilderment in the then-British colony.
Audiences are treated to numerous sequences depicting Hong Kong from a bygone era, from cricket pitches in Central to hillsides adorned with rickety slums. Stephen’s life was, from her earliest memories, perpetually intertwined with, and defined by, colonisation and immigration.