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Filmstill Eat Bitter

Eat Bitter

Eat Bitter
Pascale Appora-Gnekindy, Ningyi Sun
Audience Competition 2023
Documentary Film
Central African Republic,
China
2023
93 minutes
Chinese,
French
Subtitles: 
German Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing, English

A man on a river at dawn. He prays, dives into the water, and comes back up with a bucket of sand. The single father Thomas Boa toils away as a sand diver in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. The sand eventually ends up at the construction site of Jianmin Luan, a Chinese construction manager who went to Africa to further his career. Luan pays a price for this opportunity: He lives very simply, plagued by power failures and fears of malaria, typhoid, and civil war. After years abroad, he has become estranged from his family in China; his wife is mentally unwell.

Directors Ningyi Sun and Pascale Appora-Gnekindy tell a story of globalisation, poverty, and labour, asking how life can be lived with dignity. Instead of perpetuating clichés they introduce us to two men (and their families) who are tiny cogs in the gears of a global competition machine. There is a lot of inequality in this system and next to no winners. But there are also moments when it all seems worthwhile: when Luan’s wife visits Africa and intimacy is suddenly rekindled, or when Thomas cultivates a field and is finally able to look ahead. A visually powerful, enthralling and horizon-expanding film that skilfully evades stereotypes.

Luc-Carolin Ziemann

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Pascale Appora-Gnekindy, Ningyi Sun
Script
Mathieu Faure, Ningyi Sun, Pascale Appora-Gnekindy
Cinematographer
Orphée Zaza Emmanuel Bamoy
Editor
Hannah Choe, Mathieu Faure
Producer
Mathieu Faure
Co-Producer
Ningyi Sun, Pascale Appora-Gnekindy, Orphée Zaza Emmanuel Bamoy
Sound
Aaron Koyassoukpengo
Sound Design
Hollis Smith
Score
Cal Freundlich Moore
Animation
Michael Kosciesza
Executive Producer
Mathieu Faure, Steve Dorst
Filmstill No Changes Have Taken In Our Life

No Changes Have Taken In Our Life

Hai nei yang
Xu Jingwei
International Competition Animated Film 2023
Animated Film
China
2022
43 minutes
Chinese
Subtitles: 
English

After the graduation ceremony, Ba, a young musician, leaves the hall with his tuba over the shoulder. At the door he meets his teacher who makes him promise something: report back as soon as he has found a job. As nobody picks him up at the student residence, Ba makes his own way through the barren rural area. Home at last, he discovers that his father has found a new wife who now lives with him. There is no more room for Ba. He leaves his former home and sets out to look for a job. Various futile attempts to find employment follow, first as a musician, then unrelated to his training. All efforts fail in the face of the absurd requirements of potential employers. Ba would first have to buy an expensive suit and could expect to get wages only after an unpaid initial phase, as he was still a beginner. Ba can only fend off his teacher’s intrusive questions by inventing white lies.

This world, where there is not a shred of green landscape left, where the plaster crumbles from the walls, where everything is falling apart, has no use for the musician Ba. His daily expenses consume his last bit of money. Hopes of happiness and being able to earn his living fade away. Ba’s tuba falls silent.

Franka Sachse

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Xu Jingwei
Producer
Yang Leiting, Yang Xintong
Animation
Yang Leiting
World Sales
Shuting Li
Winner of: Golden Dove Feature-Length Film (International Competition Animated Film)