Following on from his 2006 film Still Life (Sanxia haoren) with its seamless mixture of fiction and documentary, acclaimed filmmaker Jia Zhang Ke's 2008 24 City (Er shi si cheng ji) chronicles the dramatic fall of a State-owned munitions factory and its conversion into a luxury high-rise apartment complex.
Artfully composed and rich in offbeat detail, the film weaves together the stories of three generations of factory workers into a fascinating oral history of China over the last 50 years, and a meditation on the great physical and psychological changes transforming the country. The history of one factory and its workers becomes a microcosm for the entire history of China over the same period, from the huge sacrifices and personal upheavals of the early post-revolutionary years to the alienation of today's comparative prosperity. The line between documentary and fiction blurs as interviews with real workers and ex-workers are intercut with acted stories and actual vignettes of people affected by the closure of the factory and the construction of the apartment block.
Described by Little White Lies as "Enthralling, beguilling and haunting" and Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian as "a sad, deeply felt film," 24 City will be released on UK DVD on 27th September 2010 by New Wave Films at the RRP of £19.99. the following extras are included:
