Man in Black

An old man slowly strolls through a theatre that is largely shrouded in darkness. Only after a while do we discover that he is naked. Eventually he steps onto the sage, the camera circling around him, finally ending up on his face on which the traces of a hard life are visible. Wang Xilin, 86 at the time of filming, is currently one of China's most acclaimed composers. Although he joined the People's Liberation Army at 13, he was later spit out by the Communist Party. During the Cultural Revolution, he was tortured but survived. For Wang Bing, one of the most important documentarians of this century, Man in Black is atypical. Here, we are no fly-on-the-wall but a witness of a highly stylised formal language. Surprising, albeit as penetrating, as Wang's other, more 'classic' film on the programme, Youth (Spring).

“86-year-old Chinese composer Wang Xilin uses his naked body and his life story as eloquent vessels of protest art in this extraordinary, achingly beautiful hour-long film. He endured 14 years of persecution - including beatings and torture - after falling out of favor with the Chinese Communist Party.” - Variety