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Country/Region: Mainland China

Release Year: 2008

Story:
The voices in this film are all conscientious citizens doing their utmost to improve the state of their nation. Their ethos is: "Where affairs of state are concerned, we cannot stand idly by and watch." And yet the reward for their concern is a lifetime spent in political turmoil, years of periodic intimidation and surveillance. This film illustrates the perils of seeking freedom in a time of darkness, in a time when critique requires transformation. It depicts the harsh realities faced by three generations of activists—young, middle-aged and elderly—and allows us to better understand their anxieties, hopes, despairs and above all, their persistence.

Casts & Crews:

HUANG Wenhai
Directors

Runtime: 102 minutes

Language: English

Subtitles: Chinese, English

Festivals & Awards:
2008 Venice International Film Festival Orizzonti Special Mention, Italy

Tags: #intellectuals, #democracy, #history

Stills:

Director‘s Statement:
Starting from a project on the portrait of laying Buddhist (Wenhai opposes the religious feeling to the chaos), "WE" leads us to meet something more, and more powerful: which are the dissidents in one word. Not the dissidents in the sense of Soviet Union, but a bunch of courageous citizens, no matter who are

CCP

members or not, who persist in thinking politically (and not just economically) the future of their country. All of them have got the experiences of being oppressed, of being jailed, of being harassed by the police, of being censored. All of them learned how to survive in this country, and how to continue. The original title of the film was "TAMEN", which means "THEY". But Wenhai knows very well that a direcor is also shooting himself while he shoots others. By calling "THEY" , he would have put a distance, the people in the film would be felt as a prudent strangers group. The final cut takes position :They are "WE". Wenhai said modestly of his film that he has just tries to present some images of citizens. Formidable modesty helps him find a sort of courage on those poet-heroes, since it makes us see and hear the weight of the history on a "today" made up with neon lights, mobile phones, skyscrapers, and Olympic games.