Zhao Liang
2009 - France/Chine - Couleur - 124'
Petition is a unique testimony about China today. Since 1996, Zhao Liang has filmed the “petitioners”, who come from all over China to make complaints in Beijing about abuses and injustices committed by the local authorities. Gathered near the complaints offices, living in most cases in makeshift shelters, the complainants wait for months or years to obtain justice. Faced with the most brutal intimidation from the local authorities, the complainants who stubbornly continue despite everything find that their hopes are often vain. Zhao Liang has accompanied several of them, particularly a mother and her daughter, whose full story we follow over ten years. A film shot right up to the start of the Olympic Games, showing the persistent contradictions of China in the midst of powerful economic expansion.
Photography : Zhao Liang
Sound : Laurent Thomas
Editing : Zhao Liang, Sylvie Blum, Bruno Barwise, Kong Jinglei, Shun Zi
Production : Ina, Arte, Three Shadows
Distribution : Ina (mgautard@ina.fr, +33 (0)1 49 83 29 92)