Feng Xia (52), a Chinese immigrant, lives in Montreal with her husband and their children. The couple is in crisis as Feng Xia confronts a reality she’s been repressing since her youth: she’s a lesbian. Through a website, she meets Camille (30), a Quebecker with whom she develops a secret affair. Feng Xia faces a heartbreaking dilemma between her responsibility to her family and her passionate deliverance with Camille. She has no choice but to confront her fear and the powerful morality of her culture. In doing so, she will find sexual fulfillment, live out her lost childhood love, and face her destiny.

In Montreal, My Beautiful, director Xiaodan He crafts a deeply personal and evocative portrait of late-blooming sensuality and cultural displacement. Feng Xia (Joan Chen), a Chinese mother living in Montreal, has spent her life in quiet service to an unfulfilling marriage and tradition. Experiencing menopause and fluctuating emotions, she begins to consider her deepest desires. When she meets Camille (Charlotte Aubin), a younger Québécoise, her long-buried sexuality is awakened—setting off a tender and tumultuous journey of self-discovery.

Set during a sun-drenched Montreal summer, the film beautifully explores the tension between duty and freedom, exile and identity, repression and release. As Feng Xia chooses to lean into the yearning for the first time, she confronts the emotional toll of breaking free from deep-rooted expectations.

With poetic realism and a rare focus on the middle-aged queer experience, Xiaodan He offers a powerful meditation on belonging, courage, and the steep cost of liberation. A daring, emotionally charged work from a singular voice in Canadian cinema. -REELWORLD

Doors Open 30 Minutes Before Showtime.