In a new Amazon Prime series starring Nicole Kidman, American filmmaker Lulu Wang depicts the complex power dynamics between Hong Kong's rich expats and their domestic 'helpers'.
She hopes Expats, which stars Nicole Kidman, will challenge viewers to question who gets called an 'expat' and who gets called an 'immigrant'.
"Domestic workers, they are [in Hong Kong] temporarily as well, there for work, there full-time. How come they're known as 'domestic workers' or 'helpers' - as many people in Hong Kong call them - whereas 'expats' are called 'expats'?"
Lulu Wang Photo: Matt Morris
Lulu Wang is coming to Auckland for next month's Big Screen Symposium.
Expats, which is based on Janice Y. K. Lee's novel The Expatriates, was executive-produced by Kidman, who approached Wang to direct it after seeing her tackle complex cultural interactions without judgment in the acclaimed 2019 comedy-drama The Farewell.
"She wanted [Expats] to have some degree of humour. It is such a dark subject matter that she wanted to make sure there was still warmth and levity."
After the runaway success of The Farewell, Wang says she "was and wasn't" surprised to get Kidman's call.
"I'd heard that when you have some success in Hollywood, people do kind of pluck people out of obscurity - newer filmmakers - and put give them this platform to do something larger. It usually doesn't necessarily happen to someone who looks like me in Hollywood so, of course, it was a tremendous opportunity."
Despite this, Wang says she was also slightly sceptical of how much creative freedom she'd be given on the project.
"I've seen and heard from filmmakers that when that happens you can easily get lost in the shuffle, like you're plucked out of a small project, put onto a much bigger project, but then you're not allowed to bring your own team. You aren't necessarily given the creative control at like a much higher budget level.
"I was afraid that even though [Kidman] was really well-intentioned and really wanted my vision that ultimately with the size of the show with the kind of budget that I wouldn't be given the creative control."
Wang got her confirmation that Amazon would respect her creativity choices when one of her "biggest asks" - an expensive episode involving a special-effects storm and not centred on Kidman's character - was given the go-ahead.
"When the studio said that they would support that episode that's what really convinced me and made me feel like okay, like I could deliver both what Nicole and the studio wanted while also maintaining my own voice in the process.
"I had the same team from The Farewell on this so we were all learning together, which was really exciting. Obviously, we had incredible support from Amazon. To have resources in a way that we didn't have before… It was just a huge trial-by-fire learning experience for all of us."
Wang hopes the series will challenge viewers - as making it challenged her - to think about how language itself can be classist.
"Domestic workers, they are [in Hong Kong] temporarily as well, there for work, there full-time. How come they're known as 'domestic workers' or 'helpers' - as many people in Hong Kong call them - whereas 'expats' are called 'expats'?"
She came to realise that she herself "code-switches" in different countries.
In the States, where she moved with her family as a young child, Wang identifies as both an American national and an immigrant but in Asia, she identifies as neither a local nor an immigrant.
"All of my friends are expats so I guess I'm an expat, but it also feels strange to identify as an expat in my own country, where I was born."
People will always be fascinated by very wealthy people, she says, and on-screen we usually see an aspirational, fantasy depiction or a social critique of their lives, such as in the "wonderful" Succession.
"[With Expats] I was just trying to do something different where it's neither fascination nor is it a teardown ... It's an examination of how we all live in the same world and yet we don't live in the same world. We can literally be in the same house … and yet we're in very different worlds."
