This debut feature from the Cambodian-born, London-based film-maker Hong Khaou is heartfelt, intelligent film-making on a shoestring budget. Exactly how autobiographical it is doesn't matter: it is clearly very personal, and involving. Ben Whishaw plays Richard, a gay man grieving the loss of his partner, Kai (Andrew Leung): in his agony, he reaches out to his Kai's mother, Junn (Pei-Pei Cheng), a lonely Chinese widow in an old people's home, who still doesn't realise Kai was gay, and is under the impression that Richard was merely her son's "friend" – one she never liked all that much.

To alleviate his terrible loss, Richard tries his best to strike up an unlikely relationship with the prickly Junn and hires a Chinese speaker named Vann (Naomi Christie) to translate their conversations, and even help Junn with a budding, platonic romance she is having with a roguish old gentleman at the care home, Alan, played by Peter Bowles. Inevitably, Vann gets drawn into this emotional tangle and becomes unsure how much to translate, and how much to rephrase diplomatically. The relationship between Junn and Alan is perhaps a little contrived, but Lilting is an affecting story. Junn's liking for a Chinese cover version of Dean Martin's Sway called to mind Wong Kar-wai's fondness for the same tune in his movie 2046