THE PLUTO MOMENT
Director: Zhang Ming
110 minutes. China. 2018. Subtitled. Colour. D-Cinema.
Official Selection, Director’s Fortnight, Cannes Film Festival 2018.
Wang Zhun (Wang Xuebing), a filmmaker living in Shanghai, travels to the Wu Mountain in southwest China to track down the traditional folk song The Tale of Darkness to inspire his script. Performed only at funerals this ‘nocturnal song’ is regarded as a ‘living epic’, depicting the origins of heaven and the earth, creation and reproduction cycles, a grandiose portrayal of the Han people.
But the urban filmmaker and his crew encounter difficulties. Getting lost in the mountains, they must hike and stay with locals. Relationships are strained and Wang Zhun’s anxious, emotional nature is put to the test. Chinese writer-filmmaker Zhang Ming follows the characters spectre-like, in their moments of trial and isolation. A slow-burning journey into the process of creativity, filmmaking, politics, where urban and rural cultures clash.
Zhang Ming (b. 1961 in Chongqing, China) is Professor of the Department of Directing in Beijing Film Academy. His debut feature In Expectation (1996), premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and won prizes at Pusan, Vancouver and Torino International Film Festival. Weekend Plot (2001) was selected in many film festivals amongst others, Tokyo, Pusan, Berlin, Rotterdam. His films include Before Born (2005), The Father (2006), The Bride (2008), Folk Songs Singing (2011) and China Affair (2013). He is regarded as one of the Sixth Generation of Chinese directors, along with Jia Zhangke and Lou Ye.
