Bijou Film

Wednesday, November 9

9:00 pm

Thursday, November 10

7:00 pm

Writer-director Zhang Lu’s fascinating window into a rarely seen corner of rural China revolves around 12-year-old Chang-ho, living with his grandfather and mute sister along the frozen river-border with North Korea. Although fraught with unemployment and other tensions, his community seems sympathetic toward the Korean refugees fleeing famine and misery; Chang-ho even bonds over soccer with one young border-crosser who comes scavenging food for a sibling. But he soon turns on his new friend as suspicions mount against the illegal immigrants and his sister reels from unexpected aggression, provoking a quandary over his loyalties in an exquisitely detailed story of compassion and strife across an uneasy geopolitical border.

Dir. Zhang Lu
Korean and Mandarin w/English subtitles, China
89 min, 35 mm

Trailer: http://catalogue.globalfilm.org/global-lens-collection/global-lens-2011/dooman-river.html