Faces, faces under the sun, beings in a messy globalized environment, struggling, sensitive or sorrowful, they all tell of our simple but deep human longings and belongings. In
A Chicken Farmer Says a woman from a Chinese village stands straight in front of a huge train station. This is her first time in Chongqing.
A Place Called Home: British people in the streets of London, near Liverpool Street Station. An accountant, a bank orker, a policeman, some loud laughing suburb girls - "We are legends! We are the future!" they shout. Are we?
Ridley Road Market, London E8: Some working class sellers in an African vegetable market in Hackney. The fishmonger has a big scar on his face. "What happened to your face?", I ask. "Of course my girlfriend did that!" he smiles. For me, it was the saddest smile in that market.
This film is screened together with
Far And Near and
The Concrete Revolution.
GUO
XIAOLU
Born in 1973 in a fishing village in southern China. She studies at the Beijing Film Academy and begins to write screenplays, fiction and criticism. She receives a grant to study at the National Film and Television School in England. In 2003 her first novel,
Village of Stone is shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and wins the International Literature Prize in Dublin. In the same year she directs her first short poetic documentary
Far and Near, that wins London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts Beck’s Future Prize, followed by the documentary
The Concrete Revolution. The acclaimed
Jin tian de yu zen me yang? (How Is Your Fish Today) which tells the story of a scriptwriter’s journey wins an award at the Rotterdam Film Festival.
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, her acclaimed third novel, is the first book she writes directly in English. This year, her feature
She, a Chinese wins the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival. Her latest documentary
Women cengjing de wuchanzhe (Once Upon a Time Proletarian: 12 Tales Country), in which she explores facets of Chinese social and political landscape, has just been presented at the Venice Film Festival.
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