Feng Zhong You Duo Yu Zuo De Yun

Guangzhou in southern China is a city of modern buildings, luxury facades and endless chains of skyscrapers. And yet here of all places, people have to fight for their living space. While an excavator demolishes a kindergarten in the background, the city’s inhabitants engage in a brutal battle with a private security company to prevent the demolition of their old quarter. In the midst of this turmoil, Tang Yijie, director of the municipal building commission, falls from a roof and dies. A young police officer named Yang Jiadong takes up the case. Before long, other crimes come to light that have never been solved. Or maybe they were not meant to be solved? When Yang is suspended from duty without any proper explanation, he continues his investigation on his own initiative. In the guise of a film noir, replete with a lonely hero who believes in justice, and dynamically shot using a hand-held camera, Lou Ye’s film is a tale of ruthless avarice, corruption, building scandals and brutal social and economic upheavals. A thriller set in present-day China that uses a criminal case to reflect the country’s most recent history. (Berlinale)