An Elephant Sitting Still
Achingly elegant and epic, Hu Bo’s magnificent debut film spins a wrenching tale of rage and beauty. Winner of the Golden Horse Award for best film, the highest accolade of the Chinese film industry.
Over the course of a single, eventful day, a restless camera stalks lives scarred by indifference, violence, and despair amid the frozen post-industrial decay of an anonymous city somewhere in northern China. Teenage Weibu is bullied at home and in school, his old neighbour Wang Jin has been evicted from his home by his estranged family, and his classmate Huang Ling is having an affair with a school official and fears the release of a revealing video. To escape from their families, authorities, gangsters, and the bleak nature of reality, they embark on a journey to Manzhouli, where a mythical elephant is said to be sitting still, indifferent to the brutality of the world – casting a legendary spell that seems to draw the protagonists away from their troubles.
AN ELEPHANT SITTING STILL is destined to become a landmark of new Chinese cinema, albeit one tainted by tragedy, as the immense talent of the young director is now forever lost due to his suicide shortly after the completion of this film. (source: www.tiff.net)