NIGHT TRAIN (YE CHE)

China - 2007 - 35 mm. 94 min.

Director:
  DIAO YI NAN
Script: Diao Yi Nan.
Production: Ho-Hi Pictures, DViant Films i Fonds Sud Cinema.
Cast: Liu Dan, Qi Dao, Xu Wei, Wu Yuxi, Wang Zhenjia, Meng Haiyan.

Section:
  Official Competition
Screenings:

Produced independently of Chinese officialdom, the second film by the director of the striking Uniform is a deeply and brutally honest movie portraying the loneliness of a woman confronting her desires and desperation. Featuring a prison officer, a silent witness to the intransigence and injustice of death row, who in her free time searches for a partner through a marriage agency. Following a number of disastrous dates, a mysterious man will come to her rescue and she will be attracted to him until she discovers what his real intentions are. In the style of Jia Zhangke, the social transformations and increasing industrialisation of an impoverished region provide the backdrop against which characters -overcome by their emotional conflicts, their radical solitude and the unpredictable effects of human reactions- act. In spite of everything, the director endows his protagonist with a strength and dignity that impose themselves powerfully over adverse circumstances.

NIGHT TRAIN