Beijing Suburb (2002)

• 74%
• 2002
• Hu Ze

From Variety: "Guaranteed to never screen in any legit mainland Chinese venue due to its daring depictions of rebellious artistic protest as well as explicit sexuality, Hu Ze's "Beijing Suburb" is a quietly masterful work portraying really struggling artists. This remarkable case of art imitating life observes a tiny community of painters and various multimedia artists — social critics all — operating clandestinely in a courtyard-style building in the capital's outskirts. Hu's film itself is clandestine, in the manner it reveals the hardships these artists must endure, in its quiet advocacy for the artists' position, and also in its strong erotic content, carried to an extent comparable in the region only to South Korean cinema. Brave fests should do everything they can to secure a print, as difficult as that might be.