His documentaries previously screened in Rotterdam, including the epic Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks, have shown Wang Bing to be a gifted and sensitive observer of today’s China. For his documentary Alone, he went to the province of Yunnan where, in a very poor mountain village, he filmed the daily lives of three sisters aged 10, 6 and 4. The mother left three years ago for an unknown destination; father works in a remote town. It looks like the eldest girl seldom goes to school and has taken on the role of caring for her still playful sisters. Despite their difficult circumstances, they also have fun and occasionally drop in to see an aunt and grandpa.
Their life changes drastically when father decides to take the youngest two with him and leave the eldest with grandpa. Until another surprising twist occurs. Alone is a shorter version of the film Three Sisters screened in Venice.
- Director
- Wang Bing
- Countries of production
- France, Hong Kong
- Year
- 2012
- Festival Edition
- IFFR 2013
- Length
- 89'
- Medium
- DCP
- Original title
- Gu du
- Language
- Mandarin
- Producers
- Sylvie Faguer, Mao Hui
- Production Companies
- Album Productions, Chinese Shadows
- Sales
- Chinese Shadows
- Cinematography
- Wang Bing, Huang Wenhai, Li Peifeng
- Editor
- Louise Prince
- Sound Design
- Antoine Fournier
- Website
- https://www.chineseshadows.com/alone-1