Another Year

This is not a film about people eating, says Shengze Zhu, who may be compared to James Benning in her uncompromising observation of the world. It is a film about space encroaching from all sides and time leaving its mark. In 13 static takes, the director shows three generations of a migrant family of villagers attempting to eke out a life in Wuhan, one of central China's largest cities. Their relationships, discussions, and experiences distill the current condition of the Chinese, the brutality of modern capitalism, and the complex specificity of the Middle Country. In addition to the intimacy afforded by the situation as arranged by Shengze Zhu, this superficially raw film is filled with pure poetry. The cold light of fluorescent lamps extracts the absurd nature of a garland of plastic bags hanging on a cracked dirty wall that serve as a closet. The shots in the family home are reminiscent of paintings by Renaissance masters. Unaware of this beauty and mystery, the people become mere elements of the composition as they submit to the passage of time.