After graduating from film school in Europe director Fan Wu decided to travel across Europe instead of taking the good girl track. While at a dance festival in Berlin she discovered Xixi a Chinese improvisational dancer. They became friends and after several years Wu turned her correspondence and footage into a portrait of the dancer.
This is as close to a subject as you are going to ever get in a film. From the opening moments we are “in the face” of Xixi. At the start it is literal as we go with her to pick up her daughter and later we are tied to the hip as we go through her days. The result is a enlightening film that truly lets us walk in the shoes of another.
I really liked this film a great deal. While the seeming lack of boundaries can be a bit jarring, I love that the film doesn’t shy away. We really get to know Xixi and everything about her life.
And we also get to know about Fan Wu as well. Its clear that the two women are sisters and have a connection to each other. Listening to them speak to each other this is not a relationship of biographer and subject but just two friends hanging out. It is this closeness that allows us to get so close to Xixi and what makes this film something special.
Worth a look.
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