An Elephant Sitting Still (2018/Hu Bo/China)
An Elephant Sitting Still (Hu Bo) 3h50'
In the northern Chinese city of Manzhouli, they say there is an elephant that simply sits and ignores the world. Manzhouli becomes an obsession for the protagonists of this film, a longed-for escape from the downward spiral in which they find themselves. Among them is schoolboy Bu, on the run after pushing Shuai down the stairs, who was bullying him previously. Bu's classmate Ling has run away from her mother and fallen for the charms of her teacher. Shuai's older brother Cheng feels responsible for the suicide of a friend. And finally, along with many other characters whose fates are inextricably bound together, there's Mr. Wang, a sprightly pensioner whose son wants to offload him onto a home. In virtuoso visual compositions, the film tells the story of one single suspenseful day from dawn to dusk, when the train to Manzhouli is set to depart.
- An Elephant Sitting Still review: a shattering, soul-searching Chinese one-off (BFI, 13 dec 2018, GiovanniMarchini )
- Film of the week: An Elephant Sitting Still is a howl of desperate defiance (BFI, 13 dec 2018, Tony Rayns)
- An Elephant Sitting Still review – melancholic and mesmerising (TheGuardian, 15 dec 2018, Shimran Hans)
- « An Elephant Sitting Still » : périple en train à travers le spleen (Le Monde, 9 jan 2019, Jacques Mandelbaum)
- An Elephant Sitting Still(Da xiang xi di er zuo, China 2018) (The Case for Global Film, 15 jan 2019)
Read also :
- Contrechamp interdit (An Elephant Sitting Still) First part
- Spoiler Territory (An Elephant Sitting Still) Second part
- A press review (An Elephant Sitting Still) Third part
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