MR. ZHANG BELIEVES recounts 30 years of China’s 20th-century history through the story of Mr. Zhang Xianchi and the interacting forms of theatrical fiction and autobiography. Born in a nationalist Kuomintang family in the 1930s, Zhang was a progressive young “leftist” and Communist Party supporter but after the founding of the New China in 1949, he was dubbed a counter-revolutionary “rightist,” a public enemy, and jailed in 1957.
Festivals
Labels & Line Ups
Credits
- Cast
- Cai Yifan
- Zhang Xianchi
- Jimmy Zhang
- Ma Xiao'ou
- Screenplay
- Qui Jiongjiong
- Cinematography
- Peng Fan
- Music
- Diao Lili
- Production
- ALL WAYS PICTURES
Jiongjiong Qiu
China
In a dark room, a screen brightens. A shape, like a drunken magician, summons creatures large and small to their places, where they stretch and settle. Just before the light fades, they evaporate, like clowns smiling faintly or making faces. That's the kind of film I like to make.
QIU Jiongjiong (born 1977) is an active contemporary artist and filmmaker in China. His work as an artist has been exhibited worldwide. As a filmmaker, his experiments with cinematic language and aesthetics in documentary film-making have earned him a reputation as one of China's most important independent directors. His experimental/documentary feature MR. ZHANG BELIEVES (2015) premiered at Locarno FF and has been screened internationally. A NEW OLD PLAY (2021) is his first fiction feature and won the Special Jury Prize at Locarno FF.
