I Dreamed a Dream

In Wei Shujun’s wry docu-fiction, a group of ambitious young male rappers take part in a film shoot at a tropical beach resort, led by an absent genius auteur. Sunbathing by day, and recording by night, the men succumb to a series of unsettling dreams.

In a tropical beach resort, a group of young men spend their days sunbathing in the blazing heat and their nights producing rap songs, watched all the while by a film crew. There is no script, and the men have not been assigned roles, only told that they will undergo a period of “character-experiencing” and that this is a potentially career-making opportunity. An exacting assistant relays orders given over the phone from elsewhere by an unseen film director, an absent genius whose maverick methods at first trigger confusion and anger in the young musicians – until gradually, one by one, they are each swept away by a series of profound and unnerving dreams.

With films such as Only the River Flows (2023) and Striding into the Wind (2020), Wei Shujun has established himself one of the most striking and unpredictable voices in new generation Chinese cinema. Shot with few resources over nine days by the filmmaker and his friends, I Dreamed a Dream is minimal but typically ambitious, a mercurial work of hybrid documentary which blurs the boundaries between dreams and consciousness. An arresting, highly original vision of artistry in action, and an arch, metatextual examination of the madness of filmmaking.

– Rachel Pronger

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