Gagaland

Grab your selfie stick and go gaga: this upbeat dance flick is a scrappy, psychedelic, footloose jump for the TikTok generation.

A world premiere and Tiger Competition contender, this first feature from 23-year-old director Teng Yuhan narrates familiar beats in an unfamiliar context: Gagaland is a rags-to-riches, boy-meets-girl story, set against a viral dance craze flooding Chinese streets and social media feeds.

Small-town kid Boy K is fleeing his job at the duck-down factory when he stumbles into a motley crew of urchins boogieing on the pavement for likes and shares. This is gaga dance: a form of spirited freestyle championed in China by ‘the king’, Pink Hair. Boy K quickly becomes the rising star in Pink Hair’s crew, amassing thousands of subscribers. Will he win the affections of fellow gaga dancer B Girl, or cause trouble in his gang – and the gaga dance underworld beyond it?

If these beats seem well trodden, they are trampled through gleefully by Teng’s irreverent, joyful filmmaking. Explosive set pieces, even wilder and more carefree than the dancing they frame: all rapid-fire social media feeds and kaleidoscopic split-screens. Bouncing between these cyber-surreal sequences and its Broadway-style street story, this charming show-stopper is sure to get you on your feet.

– Callum McLean