Lulu Wang didnt want to make The Farewell solely about identity.

I dont look at my family every day and go, Gosh, look at my Asian family, right? Or, like, Look at me, I am so Asian, the writer-director told HuffPost. When I look in the mirror every day, I go through my life just as me, and I look at my family just as family. And so it was important that I tell a story that both captures and honors the details of their real life, but also doesnt limit them to just that.

Wangs film unravels the tensions between New York City-based struggling artist Billi (Awkwafina, exquisite in her first dramatic role), her parents and their relatives in China. Billis nai nai (paternal grandmother) is diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. And, as in Wangs real life, the family agrees to keep the diagnosis a secret from Nai Nai, going as far as, for example, paying a copy shop to alter her test results to describe her tumors as benign shadows. The film unfolds over the course of a week or two, while the family plans a shotgun wedding for Billis cousin as a ruse to get everyone together.