11 Blumen (2011)

11 Blumen: Directed by Xiaoshuai Wang. With Jingchun Wang, Wenqing Liu, Guo Liuxing Zhong, Kexuan Zhang. 11-year-old Wang lives with his family in a remote village in China. Life is tough, but they make the most of what little they have. When Wang is selected to lead his school’s daily gymnastics, his teacher recommends that he wear a new shirt, which forces his family to make a great sacrifice. Soon after, Wang encounters a wounded man on the run and their fates are intertwined.

“It is not untrue to say this film is about rape, murder and betrayal. But this could lead to the wrong conclusion. Eleven flowers is a very subdued, subtle movie in which no violence is shown at all. As in many Chinese films, not much is shown, but a great deal is implied. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe story is about 11-year old Wang Han, who accidentally encounters a murderer who has taken revenge for the rape of his 16-year old sister, a girl the boy secretly fancies. The murder is the talk of the town in the rural community, and leads to some unexpected developments. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut the murder story is only a vehicle for the director. He uses it to tell two other stories: the friendship between Wang Han and his school buddies, and the impact of the cultural revolution on the daily life of the ordinary Chinese in 1975. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe cultural revolution, a euphemism for the ruthless oppression by Mao Zedong, is the backdrop for the story. Already in one of the first scenes it becomes clear what the director wants to tell us. u0026#39;Why donu0026#39;t you work in the factory, like motheru0026#39;, the boy asks his father who leaves for work on Monday, only to return on Friday. u0026#39;Because we are not allowed to choose our own occupationu0026#39;, he tells his son. u0026#39;Thatu0026#39;s why I want you to become a painter. That way, you can really be freeu0026#39;. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOne of the most dramatic scenes is the boy witnessing his father coming home, bleeding from his head. Against his will, the father got involved in a fight between the Red Guards en the conservatives, because he wanted to help an old man whose leg was broken by the Red Guards. It shows how devoid of any morality this regime was. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut there are also many light-hearted scenes in the film. One of the funnier ones is the boyu0026#39;s mother showing his stained underwear to his father. u0026#39;He is early, just like I wasu0026#39;, says his father cheerfully, pinching his wifeu0026#39;s bottom. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt is interesting to compare this film to u0026#39;Under the hawthorn treeu0026#39;, the recent film by Zhang Yimou which explores the same theme of everyday life against the backdrop of the cultural revolution. The difference is that Zhang made a love story and Wang a coming-of-age story. But the attention to small detail, the subdued way of storytelling and the focus on everyday life are quite similar. I liked Zhangu0026#39;s film better than Wangu0026#39;s, because the latter is sometimes a bit slow. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAt the moment of writing, this film has been rated by 149 IMDb-users, which is an extremely low figure. Apparently, the film has only been released in France (which co-produced), the Netherlands and Belgium. It deserves a larger audience.”