An Elephant Sitting Still

An Elephant Sitting Still (2018)

大象席地而坐

In the northern Chinese city of Manzhouli, they say there is an elephant that simply sits and ignores the world. Manzhouli becomes an obsession for the protagonists of this film, a longed-for escape from the downward spiral in which they find themselves.

Date of release
2018-12-14
TMDB
7.7 / 10 (245)
Runtime
3h 54m
Genres
Drama
Director
Hu Bo

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: $47.3K

An Elephant Sitting Still is a 2018 Chinese drama film written, directed and edited by Hu Bo. The first and only feature film by the novelist-turned-director Hu, who died by suicide soon after finishing his film on 12 October 2017 at the age of 29, it is based on a story with the same title from his 2017 novel Huge Crack, about four people who travel to a northern Chinese city to see the eponymous elephant. It made its world premiere in the Forum section of the 68th Berlin International Film Festival. The film has won acclaim from established directors such as Béla Tarr, Wang Bing, Ang Lee, and Gus Van Sant.

Production

The film is set in the northern Chinese industrial city of Shijiazhuang in the Hebei province. Filming occurred in Shijiazhuang over the course of twenty-five days in March and April 2017. Fan Chao, the film's cinematographer, shot with a handheld camera and frequently used tracking shots. This was a result of low budget: Hu originally intended to film statically and with wide angles, but it was too expensive.

Hu Bo wrote, directed, and edited the film himself. Production began in 2016 when he took his screenplay to FIRST Film Festival in Xining for financing. The screenplay was noticed by producer Liu Xuan, who then took it to her husband Wang Xiaoshuai. He ended up producing the film. Reportedly, Hu struggled at this time with maintaining creative control over the project, as well as making enough money from it to be able to live.

The final straw came when Wang attempted to convince Hu to cut his film down from 230 minutes to 120 minutes. Those close to Hu reported that this pressure was a major reason Hu committed suicide after production of the film was over. Wang Xiaoshuai's name was scrubbed from the press kit credits, but his production company remained attached.

The film was first screened on 16 February 2018 at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival in the Forum section. He was one of three young Chinese directors that were able to make it in thanks to their higher-profile Chinese producers, part of a growing trend in representation for independent films at Berlinale.

On 18 November 2019, the film received its streaming premiere on the Criterion Channel. On 10 December 2019, the film released on Blu-ray.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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