WO TU
ABOVE THE DUST
Wang Xiaoshuai / China, Netherlands / 2024 / 123 min / Colour
Wo Tu, ten years old, lives in a village in China where modernisation is emptying rural communities. While his parents dig for family heirlooms, Wo Tu dreams of a water gun. His grandfather promises to make his wish come true and, once deceased, his spirit will appear in his grandson's dreams. He will guide him through a dreamlike treasure hunt that will reveal the village's past, the reforms of the 1950s, and the "Great Leap Forward," the plan of the People's Republic that proposed to transform small family farms into urbanised collectives, which led to millions of deaths from famine and disease. Wo Tu's family embodies a love of the land, struggling and then failing to maintain the values associated with it. Between reality and dreams, past and present, lies the traumatic fracture in the history of this rural province. The film has been censored several times and Wang declares himself to be constantly fighting for freedom of expression.
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Wang Xiaoshuai
A producer, director, and screenwriter, he was born in Shanghai in 1966 and studied directing at the Beijing Film Academy. He shot his first film, The Days, in 1993. With Beijing Bicycle (2001) he won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2005 with Shanghai Dreams he won the Prix du Jury at Cannes. In Love we Trust (2008) and So Long, my Son (2019) also received awards at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2010 he was appointed Chevalier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France.
Credits
Screenplay Wang XiaoshuaiCinematography Kim HyunseokSound Jiang PengEditing Ruben Van Der Hammen, NCEMusic Juho Nurmel, Ella van der WoudeMain cast Ouyang Wenxin, Yong Mei, Zu Feng, Li Jun, Wang Zichuan, Zhao XiaoningProduction company Lemming Film B.V.
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