From ardent communist to executed dissident, Lin Zhao's tragic tale is also the story of China's idealists reeling under the brutal political terror of Mao's rule.

An active participant in the land reforms of the early communist era, Lin Zhao later became a top student at Peking University. Her support for those who had spoken out - with Mao's encouragement - during the “Hundred Flowers” campaign of 1956 led to her expulsion and the beginning of her disillusionment with the system she and so many others had helped to create.

In a country where the past is always political and the scale of Mao's terror is still largely unacknowledged, Hu Jie's highly emotive paean to one young woman who stood by her beliefs has made Lin Zhao something of a cause célèbre for today's activist community.

D/P/S Hu Jie WS dGenerate Films L Mandarin w/English subtitles TD digibeta/2004

Read curator Dan Edwards' extended article on Chinese indie documentary at Senses of Cinema.