Arriving at a luxury hotel in Lhasa, Tibet under the pretense of the pilgrimage many make, a famous musician is also trying to run away from her pain. She wanders aimlessly until, at dinner, she sees the sacred rainbow lobster on display. Feeling a connection to this trapped lobster, taken from its home, stuck in a small tank for tourists to take selfies with, our protagonist takes drastic action. Before anyone knows it, she’s taken off in a cheap car with the lobster in the trunk (in a properly aerated tank) on a journey to return it to its home. The ensuing road trip is a near-hallucinatory ride through road-side attractions, friendly strangers, and existential contemplations. "Travelling is just like dreaming," she says. Director Queena Li’s first feature, Bipolar is a spectacle of filmmaking, made evermore captivating by the striking performance of Chinese singer Leah Dou. In beautiful high-contrast black and white with strategic use of color, this take on the myth of Orpheus is a wild ride, a real trip.

- Tish Chambers