Shanghai Fiction
Film showing
©
English
Shanghai Fiction
Directors Julia Albrecht and Busso von Müller
Germany 2008, 133 minutes
Shanghai, the gigantic ocean of houses with its skyscraping buildings. In contrast: the idyllic countryside around the mighty Huangpu River. Using intelligently placed, contrasting montages, "Shanghai Fiction" tells the story of four people from different generations and social backgrounds living in contemporary Shanghai:
20-year old Yuan Lei, from a village in the poor province of Anhui, works as a day labourer welding balcony grids on a large construction site on the outskirts of Shanghai. His aim is to find "a better life" for himself and his young family.
Liu Wei, in his mid-fifties, is a historian and university lecturer who once hoped to change the world. As a child, he became a Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution. When his parents are arrested, he begins to falter in his convictions. Since then he has lost his faith repeatedly.
Hebe Ting, a successful businesswoman in her late thirties, still believes in the communist ideal, but since the failure of the democracy movement in 1989, she is more interested in her business than in politics.
The German architect Johannes Dell, who works for a German urban planning company designing China’s cities of the future, also finds new business opportunities in the country.
"Shanghai Fiction" looks behind the façade of China’s social and economic rise by observing its protagonists in a way that is both delicate and at the same time seemingly familiar. The camera observes in a manner that is far from neutral: it lingers on the cramped vaulted spaces of underground stations or hangs, apparently freely, over the smog of the 20-million strong metropolis. This is interspersed with archive footage of moments which define how the world has seen China over the course of recent history: the Long March, the horrors of the Cultural Revolution, the "blue ants", the Tiananmen Square massacre. The footage has been digitally altered and so has a strange and yet familiar distance to it.
"Shanghai Fiction" is a radical and exciting film, both in terms of its general concept as well as in its formal details. Both directors successfully connect the four protagonists' individual stories in such a way that universal truths are laid bare.
Entry: Free
Extra: Grilled Sausage (Bratwurst) and a Cash Bar with asorted cold drinks
Extra extra: playback list with selected music genres – choice of the day!
Remember: you can also meet interesting new people and old friends.
Venue: Goethe-Institut, Alykhan Road No. 63 – Upanga opposite the Jamat Khan Mosque.
Karibu Sana!
Directors Julia Albrecht and Busso von Müller
Germany 2008, 133 minutes
Shanghai, the gigantic ocean of houses with its skyscraping buildings. In contrast: the idyllic countryside around the mighty Huangpu River. Using intelligently placed, contrasting montages, "Shanghai Fiction" tells the story of four people from different generations and social backgrounds living in contemporary Shanghai:
20-year old Yuan Lei, from a village in the poor province of Anhui, works as a day labourer welding balcony grids on a large construction site on the outskirts of Shanghai. His aim is to find "a better life" for himself and his young family.
Liu Wei, in his mid-fifties, is a historian and university lecturer who once hoped to change the world. As a child, he became a Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution. When his parents are arrested, he begins to falter in his convictions. Since then he has lost his faith repeatedly.
Hebe Ting, a successful businesswoman in her late thirties, still believes in the communist ideal, but since the failure of the democracy movement in 1989, she is more interested in her business than in politics.
The German architect Johannes Dell, who works for a German urban planning company designing China’s cities of the future, also finds new business opportunities in the country.
"Shanghai Fiction" looks behind the façade of China’s social and economic rise by observing its protagonists in a way that is both delicate and at the same time seemingly familiar. The camera observes in a manner that is far from neutral: it lingers on the cramped vaulted spaces of underground stations or hangs, apparently freely, over the smog of the 20-million strong metropolis. This is interspersed with archive footage of moments which define how the world has seen China over the course of recent history: the Long March, the horrors of the Cultural Revolution, the "blue ants", the Tiananmen Square massacre. The footage has been digitally altered and so has a strange and yet familiar distance to it.
"Shanghai Fiction" is a radical and exciting film, both in terms of its general concept as well as in its formal details. Both directors successfully connect the four protagonists' individual stories in such a way that universal truths are laid bare.
Entry: Free
Extra: Grilled Sausage (Bratwurst) and a Cash Bar with asorted cold drinks
Extra extra: playback list with selected music genres – choice of the day!
Remember: you can also meet interesting new people and old friends.
Venue: Goethe-Institut, Alykhan Road No. 63 – Upanga opposite the Jamat Khan Mosque.
Karibu Sana!
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