In the city of Manzhouli they say they have an elephant that just sits and sits all day long. Hard to say whether he’s reached a rare state of inner peace or just given up on living a full life… This peculiar legend introduces one of the most important film events of this year’s Berlinale, if not the entire festival season, and was screened in the Forum sidebar away from the fight for those prestigious Bears. A poignant tale of four dejected protagonists who bumble through a hopeless day, the picture captures the immobility of tormented individuals – something common to man and an apathetic pachyderm as well. A superbly filmed elegy, the first and last work from the Chinese filmmaker, who took his own life last fall at age 29.