24 City Press Conference

This one was slightly busier than the Linha de Passe conference, with the majority of journalists hailing from China and Japan. They asked many interesting questions about censorship and the changes in China which the film reflects and explores, and a moment of silence was held for the victims of the earthquake that devastated the region where the film is set. Of course, the photographers couldn't keep themselves from snapping pictures during the silence, which turned it into a publicity stunt, but that's typical. The director and actresses hope the film will bring attention to the victims of the earthquake, and generate some compassion for them, because they are portrayed so sympathetically in the film.

24 City mixes documentary and fiction, and tells the story of three women from different generations - the 50s, the 70s and the present - as they cope with the closure of a factory that has been operating for 50 years, and is to be replaced by a luxury condo development called 24 City. “The best way to talk about history is to mix fiction and reality,” Director Jia Zhang said, “because it enables you to have a much richer perception of history” and understanding of the present. He said the film allowed him to build a new bridge between the present and the pass, and taught him to seek “answers to contemporary questions in the past”.

For Zhang, the destruction of the factory “is also symbolic of the speed with which changes in China occur.” He wanted to show how ordinary Chinese people lived outside the big cities in the country's interior in a country that is changing rapidly, and judging from the commentary of the critics in the room, it seems like he succeeded.

The film also reflects the changes in the openness of the Chinese government towards the filmmaking community. All of Zhang’s films before Knife were not shown in China, but since then he has been able to screen his features there, 24 City included. “It is a tremendous change when it comes to freedom and liberty," he said about the reduction of censorship, "we directors have been able to establish a dialogue with the authorities. In the past, we couldn’t defend our stances." He did admit that censorship is still tight, and that "the dialogue will have to continue to ensure that things become more conducive to modern cinema.” He wouldn’t say whether his films had to be severely censored before playing in theatres, and none of the Chinese journalists bothered asking, because his answer would probably be censored out of their work.