Shot in Chengdu before the earthquake, Jia Zhangke's new film is a masterly combination of fact and fiction.
The fact: a once-secret military hardware factory and its workers were moved deep inland in the late 1950s to protect them from a perceived Soviet threat.
Now an aeronautics plant, it has shed many staff and is moving to a greenfield site, yielding its prime location to a luxury flats/shopping mall development called '24 City'.
Jia explores the old site as it's demolished and talks to former and present workers about their experiences. - London Film Festival
Starring: Joan Chen, Lü Liping, Zhao Tao, Chen Jiabin