A miner, Han, is looking for the wife he has paid for. A nurse, Shen, is looking for her missing husband. They return to a Chinese city which is being drowned for the sake of the Three Gorges dam project. Filmed on location while the annihilation of the ancient city of Fengjie was really happening, this Venice Film Festival winner uses the displacement of a million people as the backdrop to a moving personal story of two individuals who simply refuse to be passive victims. Trailer
The screening will be introduced by Su-Anne Yeo. A PhD student at Goldsmiths, Su-Anne has taught World Cinema and Chinese Cinemas at Goldsmiths, Royal Holloway, and Simon Fraser University. An advocate of political film and art film, she has a particular interest in the work of Jia Zhangke, Fruit Chan and the films of the Chinese Urban Generation. She is currently researching the emergence of transnational networks of independent film and video in Canada and East Asia, particularly Hong Kong.
“Beautifully observed… a fascinating, understated masterpiece.”
The Times
Jia Zhangke / China 2006 /107 min / Mandarin with subtitles / cert: 15
Post-screening comments received:
“Excellent and informative”
“Very happy that Brockley has a film club”
“A fascinating film with an excellent setting. A window on a completely different world.”
“Really enjoyed the added information about the film and filmmaker and content through the discussion.”
“I thought the film lecturer this evening was a wonderful bonus. So informative and interesting insights into the director’s work.”
“Very interesting and thought provoking”
“It is fantastic to have the opportunity to see a film which I would not otherwise have seen as it is not likely to be screening elsewhere.”