Ghosted

A mysterious love story between Hamburg and Taipeh. The unsolved murder of her young Taiwanese lover Ai-ling leaves the Hamburg artist Sophie Schmitt completely disoriented. She dedicates a video-installation to her and shows it in Taipei. During the opening she is approached by a mysterious journalist. Sophie is fascinated at first glance by Mei-li, the young journalist. Mei-li takes her to visit the famous Taipei night markets and tries to seduce the artist. Sophie, still mourning her lost lover, rejects Mei-li and returns immediately to Hamburg. Shortly afterwords Mei-li shows up on her doorstep, unannounced. Sophie takes her in and finally falls for her. But soon she realizes that her new lover is secretly investigating Ai-ling's death. Strange happenings occur, sudden flashes of recollection come and go, and then Sophie finds out that there is no Mei-Li working for a Taiwanese newspaper and that no one by that name ever entered Germany. Who is the mysterious Taiwanese woman?

Ghosted is a mysterious love story set in Hamburg and the beautifully depicted Taipei, marking a return to narrative filmmaking for the director after almost a decade in documentary work. Through a mixture of flashback and present day storytelling we follow the Hamburg artist Sophie as she comes to terms with her Taiwanese lover Ai-Ling's murder. To ease her grief she creates a video installation about Ai-Ling, travelling to Taipei to exhibit and dedicate it to her. There she meets ambitious and seductive journalist Mei-Li who is investigating Ai-Ling's death, and whom the artist is immediately drawn to. Unable to forget her dead lover Sophie runs from the journalist's advances back to Hamburg, but when Mei-Li turns up on her doorstep Sophie can no longer deny her attraction. She risks opening her heart up once more until she discovers Mei-Li isn't all that she seems, and Sophie realises that you can't run away from your past. Ghosted is an intimately shot film with excellent use of location shooting in both Hamburg and Taipei. Treut's return to narrative film builds on an already impressive oeuvre, creating a modern love story that questions and explores the differences between eastern and western cultures.