Xue Ma’s Aroma to Premiere at PÖFF

Her sense of smell dominates Yang’s life, making most odors unbearable except for lemons and disinfectant, until an unfamiliar scent leads her to a comatose stranger named Fang.

That premise drives Aroma (Hõng), writer-director Xue Ma’s third feature film following White River and Sonata of Wave, the Hollywood Reporter reported. The movie will hold its world premiere in the Rebels With a Cause Competition section at the 30th edition of Estonia’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) on Nov. 16.

Jiali Zhao stars as Yang, with Weihao Xu portraying Fang alongside cast members Ze Ying and Lu Huang. Ash Chen serves as cinematographer, and Maxime Pozzi-Garcia handles editing.

The PÖFF website describes the project as a dark fairy tale that turns smell into an invisible passage between reality and the subconscious. Ash Chen’s hypnotic cinematography gives texture to unstable memories, drawing viewers from clinical stillness into a dream-world glowing with danger and desire.

Ma discussed her creative approach in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter. “Cinema lets people experience feelings,” Ma said, adding that she aims to experiment with visual, sound, smell, and touch elements to connect with emotions.

As an Asian filmmaker, Ma stated she hopes to move beyond international expectations and frameworks to create with greater freedom. She emphasized the universal nature of the film’s themes, noting that loneliness and the longing for intimacy cross language and cultural boundaries.

“There are people in the world, especially in Asian countries, who cannot express their real emotions and their real emotional needs very clearly,” Ma told the Hollywood Reporter. “They will hide some secrets. Most people just have this mask.”

She tied the narrative to post-pandemic uncertainty and the modern sense of drifting. The film explores the confusion and struggles experienced beneath these masks.

The blurring of imagination, reality, and dreams is intentional. Ma explained that a dream can feel more real due to the absence of public disclosure, reflecting a secret inner world designed to act as a puzzle.