EAFFI Discoveries: The Shadowless Tower

CLUB 18+144 min

Synopsis

The screening will be introduced by Jimmy Tianxiang Wang, PhD Researcher, Huston School of Film and Digital Media, University of Galway

Gu Wentong (Xin Baiqing) is a divorced middle-aged food critic. His young daughter Smiley lives with his sister Wenhui and her husband. Gu takes us on his work trips to the local eateries in vibrant Beijing accompanied by photographer colleague Ouyang (Huang Yao) with whom an unlikely bond has developed. One day, Gu learns that his father, estranged following an incident forty years ago, is living alone in Beidaihe, a coastal town 300 kilometres north east of Beijing, and he and sister Wenhui decide to reconnect with their father.

Chinese director Zhang Lu’s film is beautifully paced and structured, a warm and nuanced intergenerational drama, and portrayal of contemporary life in Beijing's lesser-known Xicheng district. Home to the White Pagoda, a 13th-century Buddhist temple said to cast no shadow, it stands as metaphor and embodiment of Gu’s life.