Kaili Blues

Director: Bi Gan

2015 / 109min / DCP

Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan’s award-winning directorial debut is an audacious work that announced a major new filmmaking talent. Country doctor Chen Sheng sets out on a train journey to search for his brother’s abandoned child, only to find himself in a dreamlike world where the boundaries between past, present, and future—and between fantasy and reality—are porous. This remarkable visual achievement, which feels as singular and alien as the films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, was shot in the mining village Kaili, the director’s birthplace, and incorporates poetry he’s been writing since he was a teenager.

Part of Small Town, Big Dreams