Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Saturday, Nov. 22, 4:30 p.m., HP
Sunday, Nov 23, 3:30 p.m., HP

China/France, 2002, 110 min.

Director: Sijie Dai

Producer: Lise Fayolle

Screenwriter: Sijie Dai, Nadine Perront, based on Dai's autobiographical
novel

Main Cast: Ziiou Xun, Chen Kun, Liu Ye, Wang Shuangbao, Chung Zhijun, Wang
Hongwei

Language: Chinese

Based on a best-selling French novel written by the director, the film is a
visually lush vision of life in a remote Chinese mountain village in the
early 1970's. In the lingering grip of the cultural revolution, two
university students wrongly deemed as reactionary intellectuals are sent to
the village as part of their reeducation duty to the state. Their cruel
sentence to haul human waste for fertilizer is designed to purge them of
their classical, western-oriented education. Always on the lookout for any
deviation from Maoist doctrine, the village chief keeps a stern and watchful
eye on the two students. When the boys discover a hidden cache of forbidden
books, they read exotic stories to the beautiful granddaughter of the local
tailor in order to woo her. The power of literature unlocks and awakens in
each of them the ability to change their own world in truly revolutionary
ways.

This film is an Interfaith Award competition feature finalist.