Director and screenwriter Lulu Wang offered a keen eye for people who don’t fit in, whether culturally or socially. In her short but striking filmography, Farewell earned wide applause. She pondered whether someone born in China who moved to the United States at age six could ever fully call themselves American or belong to a country in an undisputed way.
The series Expatriates returns in a six part format after a five year interval. Premiering on Prime Video on Friday the 26th, it explores uprooting and displacement through the converging lives of three American women navigating the complicated Hong Kong during the Umbrella Movement. The envisioned tale, drawn from the Margaret novel by Janice Y.K. Lee, centres on Nicole Kidman as the narrator, her neighbour Hilary, and a young woman named Mercy, whose experiences differ greatly in origin yet share a common longing to forge a new path. A tragedy that once bound them appears now as a distant memory, reshaping what they sought from life.
What began as a commissioned project evolved into a deeply personal endeavour for Wang. Nicole Kidman, who produced and acquired the rights to the book, believed Wang was the right voice to adapt it. The project grew into a personal exploration of its themes and visual language, stretching over six and a half hours of content, including a 96 minute episode that follows the daily life of Filipino workers who help save lives and support the protagonists in meaningful ways.
An empathetic expansion
When translating the novel to the screen, Wang kept a clear approach: some aspects would shift to fit cinematic language. He aimed to portray a broader spectrum of Americans who populate the book while elevating characters from diverse communities, notably in the fifth episode focused on these perspectives.
Wang describes a desire to create a series that represents diaspora in a wide, inclusive way, not solely centered on a single figure. The intention is to show varied types of Americans, not just one prominent character, and to reflect other social groups such as city dwellers and migrant workers. The goal is to explore how different identities intersect and influence one another.
To avoid over explaining through dialogue, Wang relies on the visual power of cinema. He wanted emotional nuance to emerge through images rather than lengthy narration. The challenge was to convey dislocation and guilt through visuals and sound, letting audiences infer feelings rather than hear explanations. This approach pays homage to the tone of Farewell while embracing the capabilities of streaming format to convey mood and atmosphere with economy.
In making the transition from independent cinema to a streaming series, the team retained lyricism and emotional focus. The creative team includes cinematographer Anna Franquesa-Solano, originally from Barcelona, and composer Alex Weston, who help weave the filmic atmosphere through overlapping media cues. The streaming project did not require compromising the artistic vision, and the studio supported the director’s creative choices without pressing for standard adjustments often urged in series development.
Too big, too small
A single screen is not enough for this series, and watching it on a mobile device loses much of the impact. The scale matters. On the largest screen at home, the dramatic tension grows as juxtaposed visuals place the characters against monumental cityscapes. The director reflects on humanity’s paradox: individuals can feel both significant and small. He believes in the butterfly effect, the idea that small actions ripple outward to shape the world, even when a person feels like an ant. This tension between consequence and insignificance is a recurring motif in the narrative and in the characters’ lives.