Three-time Silver Bear winner defies China’s censorship system with drama about historical land reform and its deadly consequences.
BY PATRICK FRATER on VAVIETY
Courtesy of Berlin Film Festival
On Saturday, audiences in Berlin will see the world premiere of “Above the Dust,” a Chinese-made drama that plays somewhat incongruously in the Generation Kplus section, which screens films for or about children. Whether the film plays again, and where, is moot.
The film’s director Wang Xiaoshuai, a three-time winner of Silver Bear awards at the Berlinale, is taking a considerable personal risk going ahead with the screening in the absence of approval from the mainland Chinese authorities.
With a young teen boy as the protagonist, the film depicts a hardscrabble family in a village in northwest China in 2009. While their neighbors slowly migrate to the city, the boy’s parents dig up the arid land in search of family heirlooms. Communicating with the ghost of his grandfather, the boy learns about the 1950s reforms that transferred peasant-owned land to the government and about the disastrous Great Leap Forward.
(By 1960, Mao Zedong’s attempt to change small family farms into urbanized collectives and the simultaneous attempt to stimulate industrial development led to 30 million deaths through famine and disease, and a further exodus from the countryside.)
Wang’s film was submitted for Chinese censorship approval in October 2022, but has not completed the process. Wang has attempted to comply with the more than 50 edits and deletions that the censors required, but over 15 months of negotiations he has not received a green light and the process may have stalled.
Now Wang will go ahead with the screening of “Above the Dust” in Berlin without the “Dragon Seal” of approval from China’s National Film Bureau. Without that pre-credits signifier, no film from China may legally play in Chinese theaters or show in an overseas festival.
The Berlin festival organizers quietly announced the film’s selection later than other titles in order not to attract too much attention. They told Variety that they are aware that the film does not have government approval, but they are willing to proceed if the filmmaker wants to.
In other instances where Chinese titles without the right permits were selected for major festivals, the films were typically withdrawn by the filmmakers before a public screening went ahead. In 2019, Berlin saw Zhang Yimou’s “One Second,” about the Cultural Revolution, and Derek Kwok’s “Better Days,” about disaffected urban youth, both pulled at the last moment.
Despite Berlin’s low-key approach, Chinese authorities have contacted Wang and ordered him to withdraw the film from the festival — or risk severe consequences for both Wang and its Chinese production company. The movie is an unofficial co-production with the Netherlands’ Lemming Film.
“There’s pressure on the production company and myself. A lot of pressure. It is forbidden to show the film without a Dragon Seal in Berlin. But Berlin selected it. I’m happy about that,” Wang tells Variety. “This is the film that I wanted to make. About China. About our lives. About Chinese history and reality.
“I should be happy that the film can make its world premiere somewhere in Berlin. But I have to face pressure first, not knowing exactly what will happen later. According to Chinese regulations, if my film goes to a festival like this without the dragon seal, I’ll be punished.”
Wang is one of the leading lights of the “sixth generation” of directors in China and is known for tackling gritty social subjects. His films have addressed migrant workers, police procedures, the one-child policy and the ever-sensitive 1966-76 Cultural Revolution period (“Red Amnesia,” “11 Flowers,” “Shanghai Dreams”), during which time Mao tried to purge Chinese society of the remnants of capitalism and traditional elements. Despite his missteps, Chairman Mao continues to be held in high esteem and is regarded as the father of modern China.
Wang’s directing career began with 1993 film “The Days” that earned both local acclaim and trouble. A year later, Wang was one of six directors banned from working in the Chinese film industry. While banned he made another picture anonymously. And after a period of “self-criticism” he was permitted to return to making films. He won Berlin honors with 2002’s “Beijing Bicycle,” 2008’s “In Love We Trust” and the 2019 “So Long My Son.”
“I didn’t expect to find myself back in this situation three decades later. This film was about farmers and the land. I plan to do another one about intellectuals [under the Cultural Revolution]. But given the situation with ‘Above the Dust,’ I don’t know how to move on. I want to use my films to advocate for the freedom of expression,” he says.
Wang adds that official censorship breeds self-censorship. “Since we make films for audiences, firstly Chinese audiences, I really hope that my films can be seen by Chinese audience, legally, publicly.
“[But] with the long-time censorship suppression, it is quite difficult to open your mind to create freely. When I have a story to tell, I have to tackle with the censorship first, which kills my own creation and expression.”
The film’s international sales company, Germany-based Match Factory, said in an emailed statement: “The Match Factory supports Wang Xiaoshuai all the way since ‘So Long, My Son,’ ‘The Hotel’ and now with ‘Above The Dust’.”
Berlin: Wang Xiaoshuai Risks China’s Wrath With ‘Above the Dust’ (variety.com)
