You jian chui yan (A Soil A Culture A River A People)

In a dystopian future where borders between countries are indefinitely closed, a replica of Hannover becomes the only way to experience Western culture. Citizen Yu roams through this nostalgic yet eerie town, built from memories of the past. What does he really see?

My earliest encounters with western culture were at Beijing World Park, which houses miniatures of famous global landmarks. It showed me the world without travelling. Thirty years later, I learned about Hannover China, a replica built in celebration of friendship between Hannover and Changde. With local Chinese strolling the streets, European buildings freshly painted, I said to myself: the future has arrived. I transformed Hannover into a dystopian park that amplifies cultural difference and alienation — to express a pressing fear inside me: will isolation become the norm amidst AI, growing political tension and a deeply divided world after the pandemic? Will eerie theme parks be the only way to see the world? Will the future witness the vanishing of humanity? Shot on 16mm, the film aims to create a sentimental atmosphere in tribute to a past we can never return to.

PRODUCTION 1:
Atwo - Viv Li, Julian Schwandner
Berlin, Germany
E-mail: vivienne.lwr@gmail.com

PRODUCTION 2:
Quetzalcoatl - Marc Goyens
Roesstraat 2
3670 Oudsbergen, Belgium
E-mail: marc@quetzalcoatl.be

PRODUCTION 3:
Angst & Bange - Carlotta Cornehl
Berlin, Germany
E-mail: cc@angstbange.de