YOUTH (SPRING)

Wang Bing / France, Luxembourg, Netherlands / 2023 / Czech Premiere / 212 min.

synopsis

The town of Zhili, about 150 km west of Shanghai, is one of the centres of the textile industry, where twentysomethings from all the rural areas around the Yangtze River flock for work. Although they toil away tirelessly in workshops all year round, live in the squalid conditions of cramped dormitories, face the prejudice of their families and have to fight for better pay conditions, even in this environment they find room for first loves and conflicts, building friendships and establishing new family bonds. Wang Bing thus pieces together an absorbing mosaic of intimate moments in the everyday reality of one Chinese generation through observational footage.

“In the mid-20th century, during the revolutionary fervor, especially in art, there was an enormous overuse of the word and the idea of youth, to represent a revolutionary spirit. I wanted to reclaim it from that use and that meaning. The fact is that this sector relies very heavily on this production force—the physical labor of young people.” — Wang Bing

Source: Film Comment

biography

The Chinese director Wang Bing (born 1967) is one of the leading figures in the world of documentary filmmaking. He graduated from the Beijing Film Academy and founded his own production company, Wang Bing Studios, which has produced most of his films. The director introduced his films to the visitors of Ji.hlava IDFF in 2014 during a masterclass.