Three Sisters / San-Zimei
Hong Kong, France / 2012 / 153 min.
Director: WANG Bing
[Introduction]
WANG Bing's latest film since "The Ditch" is a documentary detailing the lives of three young sisters living at a poor, mountain village in Yunnan Province, China. The surprising fact is their parents have left home and the three sisters live on their own, tending to livestock and engaging in farm work, though their aunt's family and grandfather live in the vicinity. Eventually, their father who had been working in a distant city returns. He is considering taking the three sisters to the city, but due to economic difficulties, the eldest daughter is made to stay behind in the village....... WANG Bing's camera earnestly captures children living amid a harsh environment. In such a place the children are not adorable in a way adults would wish for, yet are far from pitiable.
What is there is the indomitableness of human beings continuing to live no matter what the circumstances. The film itself is not directly making a political statement, however one cannot help but be astonished by the reality of just how much disparity there exists in a China intoxicated by rapid economic growth. Winner of the Orizzonti Prize at the Venice Film Festival.
WANG Bing
Born in 1967 in Xian, China. Studied photography at the Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, and later cinematography at the Beijing Film Academy. Directed 9-hour plus documentary "Tie Xi Qu: West of Tracks" between 1999 and 2003, which was internationally praised and won top awards at festivals around the world including the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, the International Documentary Festival of Marseille, and the Festival of the Three Continents in Nantes. His next work, "Fenming: a Chinese Memoir" (07) about a woman who survived the anti-rightist purge, was screened at the Cannes Film Festival and received the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival's Grand Prize again. In 2010, he released his first feature "The Ditch" which attracted world-wide acclaim. A retrospective of his complete filmography was held in Tokyo last year.
