AN ELEPHANT SITTING STILL
Hu Bo | DA XIANG XI DI ER ZUO
China | 2018 | DCP | 230min | MR: 12 years old
Under the gloomy sky of a small town in northern China, different protagonists’ lives are intertwined. To protect his friend, 16-year-old Wei Bu pushes the school bully down the staircase and escapes the scene after the bully becomes hospitalized with his life hanging by a thread. Wei’s neighbor, the 60-year-old Wang Jin,lives in conflict with his son and daughter-in-law who want to send him in to a fetid asylum, decides to join him. Huang Ling, Wei’s best friend and classmate, is bedeviled by an affair with the school official. Together, the desperate three decide to flee as the wounded bully’s hooligan brother, the school authorities and the parents all go on a cold-blooded hunt for Wei across town. In the end, they board a long-distance bus toward Manchuria, where a circus elephant is said to be sitting still. Based on Hu’s favorite story from his own novel Huge Crack.
TOWER. A BRIGHT DAY.
Jagoda Szelc | WIEŻA. JASNY DZIEŃ.
Poland | 2017 | DCP | 106min | MR: 14 years old
It’s early summer and Mula’s daughter Nina is about to celebrate her First Communion, and relatives are arriving for the occasion. Among them is Mula’s sister Kaja, Nina’s biological mother, who somehow hasn’t been around the last six years. Her return triggers Mula’s anxieties, and she eyes every interaction between Kaja and Nina with distrust. The family believes in reconciliation, but Mula believes that Kaja has come to take the child away. Meanwhile, a series of peculiar metaphysical events take place and Kaja’s presence triggers changes in people. Mula’s fear grows and she wants to get rid of her sister. Yet Kaja has come for a reason.
A FAMILY TOUR
Liang Ying | A FAMILY TOUR
Taiwan/Hong Kong/ Singapore/Malaysia | 2018 | DCP | 107min | MR: 12 years old
After directing the film, The Mother of One Recluse, director Yang Shu has been forced to live in exile in Hong Kong. But when her mother has to undergo a serious operation, the two women plan to meet in Taiwan where Yang will be attending a film festival with her husband and son and where her mother will be taking a touristic tour. To ensure the family reunion can take place safely, they all stay at the same hotel and follow the tour on its various scenic destinations.Like his protagonist, the director Liang Ying lives in exile in Hong Kong, and has done so since 2012, when China authorities declared him persona non grata for screening his controversial film When Night Falls (2012) at international festi¬vals. The movie is based on the true story of a man who was executed in 2008 for murdering six policemen with a knife in a Shanghai police station after being arrested and beaten for riding an unlicensed bicycle. After the film was shown in Jeonju Festival in South Korea, his family, in Shanghai, and his wife’s family, in Sichuan, were visited and intimidated by the Chinese police. Ying adds that he returned to Hong Kong (where he is currently working) and learned that he would be arrested if he goes back to China.
