Magic Atlas | Films | ANIAFF 2026

Preview Video

Synopsis

A magician arrives in the reclusive coal empire — Luocha, triggering widespread panic in a society already simmering beneath a fragile peace. After being arrested, he encounters an orphan named Xiao Zhi in prison. Amid the Mimeng Festival of collective amnesia, the magician secretly passes Magic Atlas to Xiao Zhi before being burned at the stake.

In the ensuing chaos, the child is cast into Prophecy lake. This lake, a portal through time and space, unexpectedly transports Xiao Zhi to the sacred training ground of Jinta Ling.

There, under his master's guidance, Xiao Zhi discovers he shares the same soul as the magician and that they can reunite through the energy of fire, thus beginning a shared journey through higher-dimen-sional realms.

Director

Sun Xun

Sun Xun was born in 1980 in Fuxin, China. He currently lives and works in Beijing. He is a graduate from the Print-making Department of the China Academy of Fine Arts. In 2005 he established #k Animation Studio, and soon received recognition from exhibitions and awards both domestic and abroad. His latest wood printing animation film Some Actions Which Haven't Been Defined Yet In the Revolution was nominated by Berlinale Shorts 2012 jury in the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival, merely 2 years after Sun Xun's work 21G entered the 67th Venice International Film Festival in 2010.

His recent major exhibitions include.
Sun Xun: Magic Atlas, Times Museum, Guangdong, China (2025)
Sun Xun: Parallel Circus, TANK Shanghai, Shanghai, China (2024)
Mu Chine | A new generation of artists, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2024)
Imprinting in Time, Chinese Printmaking at the Beginning of a New Era, USC Pacific Asia Museum, Los Angeles, U.S.A. (2023)
Sun Xun: Mythological Time, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (2021)
Asia Society Triennial, We Do Not Dream Alone, Asia Society Museum, New York, U.S.A. (2020)
Arts of Asia, Brooklyn Museum, New York, U.S.A. (2019)
Artificial Intelligence and the Dialogue of Cultures, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia (2019)
Sun Xun, Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia (2018)
The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, U.S.A. (2016)
Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, U.S.A. (2013)