The rendez-vous with LIGHTS FROM CHINA, the European Festival on Chinese documentaries now reaching its fourth edition, is back once again this year.

The Finestre sul Cortile cultural association is presenting the fourth edition of Lights from China, the European Festival on Chinese documentaries, in collaboration with the National Cinema Museum and BabyDoc Film, at the Cinema Massimo from Friday 10 to Sunday 12 November 2017.

Starting in Paris in 2009 with the name Ecrans de Chine, this event now sees the involvement of eight different cities in Spain, Belgium, Greece and Finland and offers a courageous, disenchanted and passionate journey through a novel China, far from stereotypes and commonplaces. This year’s programme features seven documentary films, which tell stories about women and men facing their challenges from very different perspectives.

Information and updates on films and meetings on the Luci dalla Ciina - Torino facebook page. All screenings are in Chinese original version, with subtitles in Italian. Admission 6.00/4.00/3.00 euro.

Patrick Carr (China 2016, 70’, Hd, col., o.v. it.s/t)

Escaping the Temple

The complex and intense personal stories of three highly sensitive and independently thinking dancers, depicted at the moment in which they reach a decisive turning point. Between the temptation of the lure towards a meditative life, the burden of family traditions and contrasting feelings regarding their most intimate relationships, the camera follows these three artists through their itinerary in search of a sense for their existence within frenzied contemporary society.

Fri 10, at 4.00 p.m.

An Jiaxing (China 2017, 70’, Hd, col., o.v. it.s/t)

Burning Fields

Farmers burn straw and chaff in fields to nurture the soil, fire brigades have to protect the territory, the healthiness of air and of water resources and are obliged to intervene every day. A conflict for which finding a solution is difficult, as both parties support their own reasons.

Fri 10, at 6.00 p.m.

Xiaoyu Qin & Feiyue Wu (China 2017, 96’, Hd, col., o.v. it.s/t)

Wo de shi pian (The Verse of Us)

Five Chinese workers, from clothing factories to Apple production units, to the depths of mines, find strength in poetry to sustain the burden of their harsh lives. They manage to shatter the wall of silence with their compositions, rich in dignity and love, and to tell the stories, the feelings, the hopes and the despair of the millions and millions of workers who struggle every day to find their place in society.

Fri 10, at 8.30 p.m./Sat 11, at 6.00 p.m.

Jiao Bo (China 2016, 88’, Hd, col., o.v. it.s/t)

My Father and My Mother

A tender and balanced portrait of the daily life of a simple Chinese family residing in a forsaken mountain locality, structured by means of the photographs and videos shot by the filmmaker during periodical trips to his native village. Changes wrought by time spell out the intimacy cultivated within the family nucleus, with ageing parents and problems with a disabled elder brother, until death arrives.

Sat 11, at 4.00 p.m.

Patrick Soergel (Switzerland 2016, 80’, Hd, col., o.v. it.s/t)

The Other Half of the Sky

Transformations within a society still seeking an identity, seen from the perspective of four manager women: a catering magnate, a well-known businesswoman, a leader in information technology, a ‘queen of female talk shows. Successful women who observe the changes taking place, with clarity of vision and without clichés, allowing a glimpse of a world in which determination, far-reaching vision and willpower count more than gender.

Sat 11, at 8.30 p.m./Sun 12, at 4.00 p.m.

Fan Jian (China 2017, 81’, Hd, col., o.v. it.s/t)

My Land

The determination and strength of a family of farmers who have moved to the outskirts of Beijing from a rural area in the Hebei district. In 2010 the ongoing expansion of the urban city zone surges up to their fields, and the allotments in the area are required for developing further building projects. Most of the families located there yield to the pressure, but not Chen’s: and this decision will change their lives for the years to come.

Sat 11, at 10.30 p.m./ Sun 12, at 6.00 p.m.

Jordan Peterson

Tricks on the Dead

(Canada 2016, 95’, Hd, col., o.v. it.s/t)

The forgotten event of the 140,000 Chinese peasants sent to Europe during the second world conflict, to fight an imperialist war, for reasons they did not even comprehend. Zhag Yan, a history scholar from the same Shandong district they came from, tries to reconstruct a collective memory of their incredible journey and their misunderstood sacrifice.

Sun 12, at 8.30 p.m.