Wang Bing captures the essence of broken childhood.
Nestled against a mountainside in the Chinese province of Yunnan lies a poor village with clay-built houses and muddy streets filled with animals and icy mist. Here, Wang Bing follows the daily lives of three sisters aged ten, six and four. Their mother left several years ago and their father works in the city. Under the semi-watchful eyes of an aunt and grandfather, the girls work on the land, tussle with each other and occasionally go to school.This condensed version of Three Sisters (2012) places the emphasis on the father’s decision to take the two youngest daughters with him to the city. Left behind in the village, the eldest child endures this dramatic change with resignation. While never attempting to gloss over how harsh and hopeless the situation is, the film is not cynical in tone.
Cinematographer
Wenhai Huang
Wang Bing
Peifeng Li
Sound
Antoine Fournier
Production
Album Productions
Hui Mao
Wang Bing
Born in Xi’an in 1967, Wang Bing studied photography at the Shenyang Fine Arts School and then joined the Film Academy. In the 1990s, he earned his living as a cameraman and assistant. In 2002, he directed West of the tracks, a nine-hour documentary on the demise of a huge industrial zone in China. After that, he continued to tackle subjects that were difficult to say the least: “anti-Rightist” repression, extreme poverty, life in a psychiatric hospital… In 2017, he won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival for Mrs. Fang. In 2021, the Cinémathèque française will devote a retrospective to his work. In 2023, the Cannes Film Festival presents two new films by the director in official selection: Spring in competition, and Man in Black in special screening.
