11 Flowers, Wan g Xiaoshuai (China /France 2011): San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival

The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive presents a documentary film as part of the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.

Like his fellow Sixth-Generation filmmaker Jia Zhangke, Wang Xiaoshuai (Beijing Bicycle; Shanghai Dreams) has learned much from Taiwanese master Edward Yang, whose work frequently places intimate family stories within a politically charged historical framework. Brimming with youthful energy and featuring lovingly detailed evocations of a specific time and place, 11 Flowers demonstrates Wang’s deep engagement with mainland China’s complex cultural history. Set in a riverside community in southwest China in 1975, the film follows a young boy who negotiates the onset of puberty while trying to decipher the anxious whispering around him—of Red Guards clashing with conservatives, and of a killer running loose in the woods. Jonathan L. Knapp

Written by Wang, Lao Ni. Photographed by Dong Jinsong. With Liu Wenqing, Wang Jingchun, Yan Ni, Zhang Kexuan. (110 mins, In Mandarin & Shanghainese with English subtitles, Color, 35mm)