Adelaide Film Festival 2005 | A Biennial Film Festival held in Adelaide, Australia | Films Delamu

Delamu

Australian Premiere
Tian Zhuangzhuang, China/Japan 2004  
Photo from Delamu

With films such as The Horse Thief, The Blue Kite and Springtime in a Small Town, Tian Zhuangzhuang established himself as a major filmmaker in the Fifth Generation. His new documentary deals with the Tea-Horse Road, one of the two traditional trade routes connecting China and Europe. While the Silk Road ran to the north, the Tea-Horse route went south traversing rugged mountain country from Yunnan province into Tibet. The film deals with a section of this spectacular trek which is still accessible only on horseback. It balances its strikingly beautiful landscapes with low-key interiors in which interviewees huddle over flickering fires as they discuss the religious and ethnic diversity of these regions, the best ways to understand horses, or what it feels like to be 104. Tian's vision is of a landscape rich in wonder and in the history of people who somehow endure there.

Reviews

“The film not only documents a side of Chinese culture that is slowly but surely fading away, but visits people living a simple lifestyle that is a throwback to another age.”

Mark Deming, New York Times

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When

5:30 PM Sunday, 27 February
Buy Tickets Online
Mercury Cinema

Ticket Price

Full price $14
Industry $12
SPU Concession $10

As Part Of

General Documentaries

About Delamu

108 minutes
35mm
1.78:1
Dolby Surround EX
In Mandarin with English subtitles

Print Source

ImagineAsia

Paul de Carvalho
paul@imagineasia.com.au

Festivals

London 2004
Pusan 2004
Vancouver 2004
Shanghai 2004
Tribeca 2004

About the Director

Tian Zhuangzhuang

Born in 1952, Tian Zhuangzhuang's father was an actor who became the head of the Beijing Film Studio, while his mother was an actress who took charge of China's Children's Film Studio. Tian spent several years at the Beijing Film Academy learning directing before working in television. He has since gone on to make several acclaimed feature films and documentaries.

Filmography
Delamu (2004)
Springtime in a Small Town (2002)
The Blue Kite (1993)
The Last Eunuch (1991)
Yaogun Qingnian (1988)
Gushu Yiren (1987)
The Horse Thief (1984)
Jiuyue (1984)
On the Hunting Ground (1984)

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