1428

14:28 is the time that the earth shook in Sichuan. The magnitude-8 earthquake left tens of thousands dead and millions homeless. Du Haibin’s 1428 comprises two tableaux, with recurring characters, first and foremost being the inaccessible Wen Jibiao, the prime minister. The first part shows how the victims are surviving ten days after the quake. The second part, shot two-hundred-and-ten days later, shows an enduring makeshift existence, the gap between the Party’s promises and the disaster victims’ real situation, and the arbitrariness of decision-making. In both parts, the film stigmatises a brutal and unilateral political world, which is both massive and inappropriate. The chaos is less material than moral. In the film, this chaos has a face… that of a haggard young man, a ragged ghost that wanders through the film from its first image to its last: our double. (Yann Lardeau)