The Story of Qiu Ju (Zhang, 1992): Garden Cinema, 6pm
This Garden Cinema presentation will be introduced by Chris Berry of King's College London and is part of a rare selection of masterpieces from Fifth Generation filmmaker Zhang Yimou’s early career, many of which have long been unavailable to screen in Europe. Full details here.
Time Out review:
Zhang and his constant muse Gong Li reinvent themselves
(and Chinese social-realist cinema in the process) with this
docu-drama about a peasant woman's dogged fight for what she thinks
is justice. Qiu Ju is furious when the chief of her village refuses
to apologise for kicking her husband in the balls during a fight, and
takes the matter to court to demand compensation; the film charts her
stubborn climb up the legal hierarchy. The plot seems expressly
designed to placate the bureaucrats who banned Zhang's two previous
films in China, but the quasi-documentary approach (involving scores
of non-professional actors, hidden cameras and radio mikes) is
brilliantly finessed.
Tony Rayns
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