Dooman River

Showtimes:
Wednesday, April 20, 2011 - 7:30pm
Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 9:30pm

Director(s):
Zhang Lu
Run Time:
89
Language(s):
Korean and Mandarin with English subtitles
Country(ies):
China

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.

Zhang Lu was born in Jilin-Sheng, China in 1962. He studied Chinese literature at Yenben University and began writing poetry and novels in 1986. He made his feature debut with Tang Poetry in 2004, and his second feature film,Grain in Ear, was invited to the 2005 Critics' Week in Cannes, where it won the ACID/CCAS Support Award. Dooman River is his fifth feature film.

Print Source: Global Film Initiative, Jeremy Quist, jeremy [at] globalfilm [dot] org

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