极度寒冷 | Frozen

A stunning and demanding film that takes the audience into the world of Beijing’s artistic avant-garde in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A daring young artist in Beijing is obsessed with performance art and makes his own suicide his last work of art. On the longest day of the year he plans to melt a huge block of ice with his own body heat and die of hypothermia. He calls this protest against the coldness of society “Funeral on Ice.” Based upon a similar performance staged in Beijing and shot in 1994, “Frozen” is a unique work even among independently produced Chinese films.

Directed by Xiaoshuai Wang | Starring : Hongshen Jia, Xiaoqing Ma, Geng Li, Yongning Zhang, Jie Liu | Presented at Vancouver Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, Singapore Film Festival, Jeonju Film Festival

香魂女 | Woman Sesame Oil Maker

If money can’t buy happiness, can it at least buy control over others? Xiang is hard-working, running a small sesame oil business. Her husband is lazy and drinks; her son is blood simple. When Japanese investors provide capital to expand Xiang’s business, she has the wealth to raise her social standing and buy a wife for her son, Dunzi. When money and a forceful personality fail to bend others to her will, including daughter-in-law Huanhuan, Xiang must find another way to tranquillity.

Directed by Fei Xie | Starring : Gaowa Siqin, Yujuan Wu, Kesheng Lei, Baoguo Chen, Xiaoguang Hu | Presented at Berlin Film Festival, Chicago Film Festival, AFI Film Festival