Wang Chao (China)
This hyper-realistic film is interesting for what it shows of today's life in China while getting around the remaining censorship. In the mid-sized city of Anyang, a prostitute pays a poor man a modest sum to raise her child. Slowly they become a kind of family. But her pimp, a gangster always seen with four confused-looking hoodlums dressed in cheap black suits, is diagnosed with leukemia and, panicky to leave "descendants" behind, decides the baby is his. Violence ensues, and first the poor man and then the prostitute are arrested. We are left to understand that the pimp has been killed, and it is hinted that the police don't care who is executed for it as long as somebody is. Wang Chao uses documentary-like elements to heighten the realism of his film, including amateur actors and long static shots where nobody moves or speaks. The poor man used to work in a state factory that shut down "because it wasn't making money." The girl is forced into prostitution. It's a story of people managing to be barely human in a glum and no-exit China, told with considerable rigor and control. - R.C.

(Sept. 6, 9:15 PM Varsity 1; Sept. 8, 9:30 AM, Varsity 6)