NüVoices Podcast: A Conversation with Director Elizabeth Lo about her Documentary, ‘Mistress Dispeller’

In this episode, I speak with Hong Kong filmmaker Elizabeth Lo about her award-winning new documentary, Mistress Dispeller, which premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival in 2024 and has been shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature at the 98th Academy Awards.

The intimate film follows a middle-aged couple and Wang Zhenxi, a “Mistress Dispeller”, who is hired by the wife to end the husband’s affair with a younger woman. Elizabeth discusses the film’s meditative exploration of relationships, how Wang inserts herself into this couple’s life, and how the couple — and the mistress — navigate the complex dynamics and emotions of marriage and infidelity, and their place within broader Chinese society. Elizabeth also shares the painstaking, years-long process of finding her central characters, and the remarkable trust and sensitivity required that allowed her to tell their stories. Listen to the podcast here or on your favourite podcast platform.