Zhai Yixiang’s film Mosaic Portrait came to the Western Bohemia from the faraway China to compete for the Crystal Globe. The film narrates a story of a 14-year-old girl Ying who gets pregnant, to the surprise of all. The detective story, where the search is for the nature of the society rather than the culprits, is screened as the world premiere at the Festival.
“We live in an era where we are flooded with information”, says Chinese director Zhai Yixiang. “Sitting comfortably in armchairs, we have a close view of things happening thousands of miles away through various media. What we thus hear or read is often based on shifted or even distorted facts. The interesting idea to me was to be in the centre of all this.” The director therefore put a journalist, Jia, in the focus, who comes to the village at request of the girl’s parents. The reason is that Ying named her teacher to be the child’s father and her parents do not trust the local police or the school itself to properly investigate the case and punish the teacher.
Jia as a journalist is frustrated and confused by the story (the director admits that this reflects the situation of journalists in the current China). On the contrary, Ying is wounded, but tries to remain strong and proud, as far as possible, and to move forward in her life. That is why she leaves the village for good. “Only those who are not affected care for finding truth. Victims are more interested in the situation they have got in. My story therefore subdues dramatic and moral conflicts to let the audience really feel the situation of the abused heroine,” concluded Zhai Yixiang, whose hypnotic story follows in the footsteps of the Sixth Generation filmmakers.
