- China
WINTER VACATION
Synopsis
The last day of the winter holidays in an industrial town in northern China. A handful of teenagers hang around, sit on walls, stand in backyards, arguing in long pauses about the point of school, about love and life. Little Zhou Zhangxin sits with his grandfather, who will not let him go outside, and answers the question of what he wants to be when he grows up: an orphan. A bit of bullying, a bit of boredom, and at the end of the holidays a teacher who loses his composure in front of the class. Li Hongqi’s “Winter Vacation” (China 2010, original title “Han jia”) tells this in rigid, distant shots in which people stand in the frame like pieces of furniture.
The poet and novelist Li turns the desolation into a dry comedy whose humour comes from repetition and the seriousness of those involved. At the Locarno Festival the film won the Golden Leopard in 2010. “Winter Vacation” was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2010.
Festival
Shown at the 2010 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.
