Silent Mist

Three women, one fate. Residents of a small riverside city in the south of China, they are victims of violent rape. The perpetrator, however, can sleep peacefully-it doesn't seem like anyone is interested in finding him. The only way to get the police to do anything is to bribe them, and the family of one of the women is concerned not so much with pursuing justice as marrying off their daughter as soon as possible. The women suffer in silence. Condemned to loneliness, they wander like phantoms in the fog enveloping a ghost town. Independent director and producer Zhang Miaoyan has made an uncompromising portrait of rural China, a film that will certainly not be appreciated by the authorities of the Middle Kingdom. This dark tale of crime without punishment, inspired by true events, is visually outstanding. The camera-like a persecutor or inescapable fate-follows the women through a maze of narrow streets. Silent Mist is a cinematic indictment in which a recurring folk song reminds viewers that, though the old times may have been oppressive, people were at least offered an illusion of community.