Chaiqian

JORIS IVENS AWARD

The first shot in Chai-Quian is more evocative of a shipwreck than the renovation of one of Chengdu’s districts. Here, the city does not exist. Instead, just a gaping hole in which a small community of men survives-construction site workers who are country folk from the Renzhou district. One evening the men decide to come out of their hole and cross into the other world, to take photos of themselves below a statue of President Mao hailing the crowds. A policewoman quickly appears on the scene to reproach them for frightening the tourists. What was once the pride of Chinese communism, the worker, the peasant, has now become the shame of the regime. “Keep yourself hidden, object!” The enemy is the people. (Yann Lardeau)