new wave films
An Elephant Sitting Still
A film by Hu Bo
Synopsis
This is the first and last film from its director Hu Bo. After its premiere in Berlin in 2018 where it was awarded a Fipresci prize, the film has toured festivals worldwide, picking up huge critical acclaim. It had just been awarded Best Film in the Golden Horse Awards.
In the northern Chinese city of Manzhouli, they say there is an elephant that simply sits and ignores the world. Manzhouli becomes an obsession for the protagonists of this film, a longed-for escape from the world in which they find themselves. Among them is schoolboy Bu, on the run after pushing a bully down the stairs and accidentally injuring him. Bu’s classmate Ling has run away from her mother and fallen for the charms of her teacher. The bully's older brother Cheng feels responsible for the suicide of a friend. And finally, along with many other characters whose fates are inextricably bound together, there’s Mr. Wang, a sprightly pensioner whose son wants to offload him into a home. In virtuoso visual compositions, the film tells the story of one single suspenseful day from dawn to dusk, when the train to Manzhouli is set to depart.
Where It's On
Week Commencing 14 December - also on BFI Player
| ICA Cinema |
The Mall | London, SW1 5AH |
020 7930 3647 | all week |
| Barbican Cinema | Beech St | London EC2Y 8DS | 020 7638 8891 | 14,16.17 Dec |
| Showroom Cinema |
15 Paternoster Row | Sheffield, S1 2BX |
0114 275 7727 | 16 Dec only |
| Tyneside Cinema |
10 Pilgrim Street |
Newcastle NE1 6QG | 0191 227 5500 | 16 Dec only |
Week Commencing 21 December - also on BFI Player
| ICA Cinema |
The Mall |
London SW1Y 5AH |
020 7930 3647 | 21-23, 27 Dec |
| HOME | 2 Tony Wilson Way | Manchester, M15 4FN | 0161 200 1500 | 27 Dec only |
Week Commencing 28 December - also on BFI Player
| ICA Cinema | The Mall | London SW1Y 5AH | 020 7930 3647 | 28,29,30 Jan |
| Watershed |
1 Canon's Road |
Bristol BS1 5TX |
0117 927 5100 |
1-3 Jan only |
Week Commencing 4 January - also on BFI Player
| ICA Cinema | The Mall | London SW1Y 5AH | 020 7930 3647 | 4 & 5 Jan |
| MidlandsArts Centre |
Cannon Hill Park |
Birmingham B12 9QH |
0121 446 3232 |
6 Jan only |
| Barn Theatre |
Dartington Hall |
Totnes TQ9 6EL |
01803 857070 |
4,5 Jan |
| Hyde Park Picturehouse | 73 Brudenell Rd | Leeds LS6 1JD | 0113 275 2045 | 6 Jan only |
| Tyneside Cinema | 10 Pilgrim St |
Newcastle NE1 6QG |
0191 227 5500 | 6 Jan only |
Week Commencing 11 January - also on BFI Player
| ICA Cinema | The Mall | London SW1Y 5AH | 020 7930 3647 | 11,14,16 Jan |
| Eden Court |
Bishops Rd |
Inverness IV3 5SA |
01463 234234 |
14 - 16 Jan |
Week Commencing 18 January - also on BFI Player
| ICA Cinema | The Mall | London SW1Y 5AH | 020 7930 3647 | 20,24 Jan |
| Cube Cinema |
4 Princess Row |
Bristol BS2 8JD |
0117 907 4190 |
20 Jan only |
Week Commencing 1st February - also on BFI Player
| ICA Cinema | The Mall | London SW1Y 5AH | 020 7930 3647 | 1, 6, 7 Feb |
| Ultimate Picture Palace | Jeune St | Oxford OX4 1BN | 01865 245288 |
2, 5 Feb |
Week Commencing 8th February - also on BFI Player
| ICA Cinema | The Mall | London SW1Y 5AH | 020 7930 3647 | 13, 14 Feb |
Week Commencing 15th February - also on BFI Player
| ICA Cinema | The Mall | London SW1Y 5AH | 020 7930 3647 | 15, 17 Feb |
Trailer
Director — Hu Bo
Born in 1988 in Jinan, Shangdong, China, Hu studied Film Directing at the Beijing Film Academy in 2014. His short film Distant Father (2014) won Best Director at Golden Koala Chinese Film Festival, and Night Runner (2014) was selected by Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival. His debut feature An Elephant Sitting Still, which was then still in progress, was selected by the FIRST IFF Financing Forum in 2016. In the following year, Hu Bo participated in FIRST Training Camp under the supervision of Béla Tarr, where he completed the short film Man in the Well.
He has also written two novels Huge Crack and Bullfrog, both published in 2017.
Hu Bo took his own life soon after finishing An Elephant Sitting Still.
Filmography
2014 Distant Father (short)2014 Night Runner AKA Fleeing By Night (short)
2016 Man in the Well (short)
2017 An Elephant Sitting Still (feature)
Cast & Credits
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CAST |
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YU Cheng |
ZHANG Yu |
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WEI Bu |
PENG Yuchang |
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HUANG Ling |
WANG Yuwen |
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WANG Jin |
LIU Congxi |
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CREW |
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Director |
Hu Bo |
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Screenwriter |
Hu Bo |
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Director of Photography |
Fan Chao |
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Sound |
Ren Yiming |
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Editor |
Hu Bo |
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Composer |
Hua Lun |
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Production Designer |
Xie Lijia |
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Sound Designer |
Bai Ruizhou |
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Producer |
Liu Xuan |
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230 mins |
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1.85:1 / Sound 5.1 |
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China 2018 |
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Original title |
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Da Xiang Xi Di Er Zuo (大象席地而坐) |
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Images
Click any still to enlarge
The Critics
★★★★★
"Melancholic and mesmerising...the first and last film from the late Chinese director has a desolate beauty"
Simran Hans, The Observer
Extraordinary social drama-thriller...The genius of the film is the grasp of its narrative. We are held by these grim games of fate, some genuinely life-or-death. We are held by the spinning ironies of a story in which every main character, at some moment, interacts with the others. And we are held by the seemingly real-time attention and intensity — and the nerve-exposing tragic candour — with which the director tells his tale.
“The film’s images extricate beauty from the most dismal of situations…Hu manages to evoke emotions so deeply felt and overwhelming…
“An Elephant Sitting Still,” with its chilling sense of a suspended time in which history, culture, beauty, and even memory seem erased, is among the greatest recent films."
"Debut features seldom come as ambitious, or as accomplished, as the magisterial An Elephant Sitting Still"
Giovanni Marchini Camia, Sight & Sound
Richard Brody, The New Yorker
"A long, sad, moving swan song."
Clarence Tsui, The Hollywood Reporter
"For a first-time director, the confidence and proficiency of Hu’s cinematic expression astonishes....It’s a terrible waste to lose such a remarkable, uncompromising voice in today’s government-censored, market-dictated Chinese cinema – let alone at just 29 years of age. One can only hope that this film which, for all its overt and emphatic bleakness did not end on a tragic note, could offer some sense of solace to its audience, even if it had not been enough for its brilliant maker.
Zhuo-Ning Su, The Film Stage
“Hu paints a picture of existential malaise with such a fine-tuned control of mood, imagery and pacing that the end result resembles a marriage of Jia Zhangke and Bela Tarr.”
Sarah Wood, Screen
Bookings & Press
For film bookings please contact Colin Burch at Verve Pictures — [email protected]. Press resources are on the Press page.