- China
SUMMER PALACE
Synopsis
Yu Hong comes from Tumen, a city on the border with North Korea, and is admitted to Beiqing University in Beijing. There she falls in love with a fellow student and is swept up in the idealism of the student movement that leads to Tiananmen Square in the spring of 1989. What follows are the years afterwards: the scattering of friends, disillusionment, and settling into an adult life that has nothing left to do with the passion of those days. The Chinese director Lou Ye shot “Summer Palace” in 2006.
The film runs 140 minutes and was the only Asian entry in competition in Cannes in 2006. Because it was shown there without the approval of the Chinese authorities and contains footage of the 1989 demonstrations, it was effectively banned in the People’s Republic; Lou Ye received a five-year ban from film-making in September 2006. “Summer Palace” was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2006.
Festival
Shown at the 2006 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.
