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"[An] audacious and political work, as Li Luo quietly but powerfully contends with the effect of ideological indoctrination in China." – Hollywood Reporter
Negotiating the space between the imagined and the real, this fascinating semi-experimental film from Luo Li, one of China's most lauded new directors, shapeshifts between documentary and delightfully rambling fiction as it delves into the political landscape of a nation.
Set around China's picturesque East Lake in Wuhan, the film is both an examination of the commercial development that threatens the area's natural beauty as well as the tale of a fictitious detective (played by actor Li Wen, an art teacher in real life) as he pursues an unhinged local convinced that a dragon will rise from the waters. An unusual police story that summons the ghosts of the Cultural Revolution, Li Wen at East Lake is a formally intriguing reflection on a region's changing identity.
"Swimming in a liminal space enveloping fact and fiction, myth and politics, buoyant, mobile, and utterly free." – Cinema Scope