The Concrete Revolution

"We are not just good at destroying the old world, but also at building the new one," announced Mao Tse-tung many years ago, and even he could not have foreseen the extent to which China is fulfilling his words at the beginning of the 21st century. Most notably Peking, in connection with the organizing of the 2008 Olympic Games, has become one giant construction site. This symbol of the "New China" is built by hand by approximately one million laborers traveling for work mainly from the poorer villages in the countryside. A number of them have not yet received their wages after several months, while their families wait desperately for the money. All of this is part of the transformation of Peking into a modern metropolis with a Western character. Young Chinese writer and documentary filmmaker Xiaol Guo has succeeded in creating a visually rich and imaginative film essay on the character of contemporary China, whose polished appearance has been created at the expense of the suffering of ordinary people. The film is interlaced with playfully generalized passages of the turning points in Chinese history, ironic and bitterly humorous commentary of the other side of the "Chinese miracle," and also the high-quality mixed soundtrack by Matt Scott.

BONUS of the night 12.12. > Pyonggyang Robogirl (FIN 2003, Jouni Hokkanen, Simojukka Ruippo, 4 min.)
Pyonggyang, the capital of North Korea, is a sprawling city of socialist architecture. But as the country is impoverished, its wide avenues are not exactly overcrowded with cars. There are no traffic lights. Instead, beautiful young women in fashionable uniforms direct traffic with theatrical military precision.