THE SHADOWLESS TOWER (BAI TA ZHI GUANG)
DIRECTOR: ZHANG LU
144 minutes. CHINA. 2023. Languages: MANDARIN. Subtitled. Colour.
Official Competition, Berlin International Film Festival 2023
Gu Wentong (Xin Baiqing) is a divorced middle-aged food critic. His young daughter Smiley lives with his sister Wenhui and her husband. Gu takes us on his work trips to the local eateries in vibrant Beijing accompanied by photographer colleague Ouyang (Huang Yao) with whom an unlikely bond has developed. One day, Gu learns that his father, estranged following an incident forty years ago, is living alone in Beidaihe, a coastal town 300 kilometres north east of Beijing, and he and sister Wenhui decide to reconnect with their father.
Korean-Chinese director Zhang Lu’s film is beautifully paced and structured, a warm and nuanced intergenerational drama, and portrayal of contemporary life in Beijing's lesser-known Xicheng district. Home to the White Pagoda, a 13th-century Buddhist temple said to cast no shadow, it stands as metaphor and embodiment of Gu’s life.
(Marie-Pierre Richard, programme curator & co-organiser, East Asia Film Festival Ireland & EAFFI Discoveries)