Yanmo

“Our friends suggested that we should make a film on the beauty and sentiment of Fengjie, ‘the town of poets’ (symbol of the golden age of classical Chinese culture). Certainly, poetry is the key to our art and will be the theme of our film? But once we were actually there, we were no longer sure how poetry could render the tears of an aged war veteran or the miserable life of the dockers, who live like dogs. Everybody was thinking about just one thing: their house. Poverty and unemployment were everywhere, and social justice and civil rights were often forgotten.” (Li Yifan and Yan Yü) The authorities flout the dignity of the thousands of people displaced by the Three Gorges dam and the filmmakers, with their characters, give a step-by-step account of the situation, as if it were a war.