Ash Is Purest White - English subtitled
An epic tale of love, crime and ennui set against the backdrop of a dying coal-mining town, by the Chinese director Jia Zhangke (A Touch Of Sin, Still Life).
Qiao lives in a town tumbling into economic decline. She concerns herself little with such matters because her boyfriend, Bin, is a dashing gangster who works for a corrupt property developer. After his boss is murdered, Bin ascends in rank and finds himself vulnerable to rival hostilities. When Bin and Qiao are arrested, she makes a fateful decision: she takes the heat. After five years in prison, she emerges to find her world has transformed. Her former mafia associates have moved into legitimate businesses, while Bin has found another moll. Qiao seeks revenge, but, more importantly, she searches for a new identity in a changing China – a search that will take her to Three Gorges Dam and toward a powerful revelation.