The Blue Kite (Lan Fengzheng)

Director: Tian Zhuangzhuang
Screenwriters: Xiao Mao

Institute History

  • 1994 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Finished outside the country through detailed notes and communications between the director and the foreign sales agent, Fortissimo, the film examines a family over the decade and a half from the Great Leap Forward to the Cultural Revolution (1953-1967). It is narrated in flashbacks by the child Tietou, who recalls how he and his mother lived through three marriages and the successive events and political turbulence that were primarily responsible for their difficulties. The scenes depicting the communal kitchens omnipresent during the hard economic times of the 1950’s and the persecutions of the Red Guard are vivid and compelling. It is a story of personal struggle and coming of age during the Communist revolution.

— Geoffrey Gilmore

Screening Details

Credits

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