If you can’t go to China, China comes to Leipzig.
The China Film Festival’s 4th edition (themed 拆 chai, or “demolition”) will play in town this Thursday through Saturday (9 to 11 Feb). Its organizers hope to offer “a guide for contemporary Chinese society and culture, for forms and trends.”
While we may be exposed to China a lot in the media and even through elements and people we encounter along the way, many of us know little about life there in practice. The fest seeks to lift the veil and provide the audience insights through “a raw, uncensored and enlightening look” into the superpower “with all its facets.”
The 拆 fest takes place at die naTo in Südvorstadt. It will showcase short and feature-length documentaries as well as animated and feature films by Chinese and foreign filmmakers engaging with Chinese topics.
It’s an intense 3-day cinema marathon.
The local Confucius Institute supports and coordinates the festival, whose films can be critical of Chinese society and even policies. Some directly expose instances of corruption and persecution.
Films being shown range from the evils of modernization (“The Road” and “My Land”), to risk-laden, state-persecuted social activism (“Hooligan Sparrow”) and the obstacles LGBT Chinese face (“Pink Dads” and “Inside the Chinese Closet”), to landscape journeys and lighter topics presented in a visually poetic way.
Die naTo will show the fest films in the original version with English subtitles.
China film fest lineup:
Thu, 9 Feb
19:00
– Lunar Dial (Animation, 15 min)
– The Road (Documentary, 95 min)
Fri, 10 Feb
18:00
– Ciao Ciao (Animation, 5:35 min)
– Gtsngbo/River (Feature film, 94 min)
20:00
– Pink Dads (Documentary, 20 min)
– Inside the Chinese Closet (Documentary, 72 min)
22:30
– Fish Tank (Animation, 5:59 min)
– Hooligan Sparrow (Documentary, 83 min)
Sat, 11 Feb
16:30
– The Poem (Animation, 6:14 min)
– What’s in the Darkness (Feature film, 100 min)
18:30
– This is Pan Tao (Documentary, 8:28 min)
– My Land (Documentary, 81 min)
20:45
– Ta’ang (Documentary, 147 min)
Film descriptions are available in English and German on die naTo’s website.
Entry: 6,50 € normal / 5 € reduced / 20 € Festival ticket
Feature photo: Film still from “River,” courtesy of Malina Becker (festival coordinator, Confucius Institute). Becker provided all the photos in this article.
