Long synopsis : At the end of the 1950s, the Chinese government condemned many thousands of citizens - considered ‘right wing dissidents’ due their past activities, criticisms of the Communist Party or simply their backgrounds and families - to forced labour camps. Deported for reeducation to the Jiabiangou Camp in Western China, in the heart of the Gobi Desert, thousands of miles from their families and loved ones, some 3,000 poor or middle-class ‘intellectuals’ from Gansu Province were forced to submit to conditions of absolute destitution. As a result of backbreaking physical labour, an unrelentingly extreme climate and terrible food shortages, many perished nightly in the ditches where they slept. THE Ditch recounts their fate - an unflinching account of the very extremes of the human condition.

Cast

• Zhengwu Cheng, Niansong Jing, Xiangnian Li, Renjun Lian, Ye Lu, Cenzi Xu

Crew

• Producer(s): Lihong K., Hui Mao, Francisco Villa-Lobos, Bing Wang
• Director(s): Bing Wang
• Screenplay: Bing Wang, Xianhui Yang
• DP: Sheng Lu
• Editing: Marie-Hélène Dozo
• Set Design: Yang Wang, Wanxiong Zhang

• Original Title: WIND AND DUNST
• Genre(s): Drama, Historical Drama


• Production company: FILMS DE L'ETRANGER (LES)
• Production date: 2010
• Language: Chinese
• Duration: 108 min
• Image Ratio: 0.00

• Venice Film Festival 2010 - Competition
  
• Toronto International Film Festival 2010 - Visions Program
  
• Abu Dhabi Film Festival 2010
  
• Busan International Film Festival 2010
  
• Montréal Festival du Nouveau Cinéma 2010
  
• Sao Paulo Mostra Internacional de Cinema 2010
  
• Stockholm Film Festival 2010
  
• Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival 2010
  Award(s) : Audience Award, SIGNIS Award, Special Jury Award
• Tokyo International Film Festival 2010
  
• Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2010
  
• Febiofest 2011
  
• Sydney Film Festival 2011
  
• Munich International Film Festival 2011
  
• T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival 2011
  
• San Sebastian Film Festival 2011
  
• Edinburgh International Film Festival 2012
  
• Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival 2012
  
• Vladivostok International Film Festival Pacific Meridian 2012