Daughter from Yan´an

Colour, 35mm
Japan, 2001, 120 min
Section: Documentary Films in Competition

Synopsis

A Chinese woman’s search for her real parents, members of the Red Guard who abandoned her shortly after she was born. Haixia has spent her entire life in Yan’an and she longs to know why she was abandoned. Through her single-minded investigation for her parents, the viewer is offered an intimate glimpse at events which occurred in mid 1960’s China. At that time the much-beloved Mao inaugurated his Cultural Revolution, resulting several years later in the practical implementation of the slogan “Young people will learn the roots of the revolution from peasant farmers.” Haixia’s parents were among sixteen million (mainly) secondary school students to whom this slogan applied. The indisputable existence of the daughter of Yan’an forces the forsaken children of the revolution to confront the bitterness of the past – a period in which the smiling masses, resolutely looking forward to a splendid future, concealed the unbearable private suffering of so many individuals.

About the director

Kaoru Ikeya (b. 1958, Tokyo) studied philosophy at Doshisha University in Kyoto, but then worked as an assistant director in television until 1989. He then shot several documentaries about China, and in 1997 founded the production company Ren Universe. Daughter from Yan’an is his first feature-length documentary. Filmography: One-child Policy in China (Hitorikko, 1991), Head West for Golden Dreams (Seihou ni Ougonmu Ari, 1993), Yan’an: Yellow Soil and the New Reality (Koudo no Tami wa Ima, 1994), Daughter from Yan’an (En’an no musume, 2001).