One Second(HKAFF 2021)

Celebrated filmmaker Zhang Yimou returns to his roots as a director of intimate and humanistic stories with this Cultural Revolution-set fable. The film follows a nameless man who escapes a labour camp for a glimpse of his daughter on a newsreel that captured her for a single second. Along the way, the man is accompanied by an orphan girl and a projectionist who can work wonders with celluloid. Zhang’s best and most intimate film since Coming Home is a whimsical odyssey that draws on Zhang’s memories of moviegoing in 1970’s China, and also an ode to the enduring and life-changing power of cinema.