Miami International Film Festival 2010

U.S. Premiere.

Novelist-director Xiaolu Guo’s wonderfully spontaneous, revealing look at clashing realities in contemporary China consists of interviews with individuals drawn from across post-Marxist Chinese society. Stories of yearning, loss and dreams unfold as the film presents twelve distinct sections, each exploring an individual aspect of modern China’s sociopolitical landscape: an old peasant who has lost his land; a rich Beijing businessman chatting with his mate in a stock exchange office; a young migrant who came to the big city to wash cars; an aging weapons factory worker longing for the days of Mao; a successful hotel owner praising his government’s liberal economic policies; and frustrated small-town teenagers whose dream is to become famous Western artists. Contemplating a vast and complex society whose citizens are searching for new beliefs and identities after the country’s great revolutionary days, this film demonstrates how the modern individual stands in conflict with his time and history.