Chinese woodblock printing – a technique that was in early use on both paper and cloth – was an important tool of the Cultural Revolution. This printing technique was used as an important means of communication to quickly convey information. It transported the revolutionary spirit and remains its legacy today. Some actions at the time and even later were not defined by the revolution. This is when the film begins. A strange day. A strange place. Fundamental ideological tenets meet surreal politics. A place, set apart and yet familiar to everyone, is revealed to the viewer. A space in which time and surface become one; where crows and cats alternate and give way to a view of classrooms and burning clouds, the image of a teacher and an ordeal in a hospital … The events are not at all specific and could take place anywhere in the world. And yet the memory of the historical event, repeated in the present, is made visible by these images.
Director Sun Xun: “We exist within such controlling rules. How to find ourselves? Will time allow us to use our own behaviour clearly in this historical process?