Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
In his film 11 Flowers,Wang Xiaoshuai aims to show certain autobiographical incidents that occurred during the Cultural Revolution when he was an eleven-year-old child. In actual fact the original title of the film i77n Chinese means “I’m eleven years old,”which is the age of the main character in the story, and just like the child in the film,Wang Xiaoshuai’s family was sent from
Shanghai to Guizhou in the 1960s to work in a factory.
The director pointed out that like the father in his film: “many people wanted to be apolitical in very political times. During the Chinese Cultural Revolution you had to choose which side you were on in order to survive.”Modern China,however, is quite different. “Things have changed a lot, and if you don’t wage open war against the government, nothing will happen to you. On the other hand, there’s still censorship in films and the arts. In my case despite telling the story of events during the Cultural Revolution,we had no problems with the censors because it focuses on a child.”