The relentless wave of revolutions leads to liberation in some cases, but to a spiral of violence and terror in others. Mao’s big clean-up campaign at the end of the 50s claimed an estimate of 500,000 victims In his first feature film The Ditch, well-known documentary director Wang Bing (West of the rails) tells of the fate of some detainees in a re-education camp in the Gobi Desert. This repellent and sparse environment reveals the absurdity of thinking that people could be forced to adopt an ideological system through hard word and physical emaciation. With a few, but drastic images, The Ditch reflects the fatal consequences for the individual living within a totalitarian state. "Trailer":http://videos.arte.tv/de/videos/_the_ditch_von_wang_bing-3412586.html. _Regional Premiere_
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