Director Diao Yi Nan Producer Vivian Qu, Steve Chow, Pascal Vaguelsy, Luca Matrundola, Julien Favre Executive Producer Shu Yao, Yinghua Lu, Sean Chen Writer Diao Yi Nan Cinematographer Dong Jinsong Editor Kong Jinlei Music Wen Zi Cast Xu Wei, Wu Yuxi, Wang Zhenjja, Meng Haiyan Country China, Hong Kong, USA Language Mandarin and Shaanxi Dialect (w/ English subtitles) Film Info 95min Genre Drama

In China's X'ian province, the earth is hard; the landscape, bare: factories, mountains, rocks, rivers and snow.

Austerity is the order of the day; solitude, the norm; life, a slow pace. Perfectly mirroring the landscape and its sleepwalking inhabitants, Night Train is the tale of a desperate and withdrawn woman, simultaneously buffered and distanced from people around her, from her work, from her life- yet reaching out for human contact. In an amazing achievement, director Diao Yi Nan (screenwriter: Spicy Love Soup, Shower, and Uniform evokes Antonioni at his best in his depiction of people in a landscape, and Bresson at his most profound in his portrayal of their quest for redemption. Told in oblique strokes, with a luminous performance by actress Dan Liu, stunning camera composition and a perfect sense of timing, Night Train quietly but inevitably builds towards a climax of such truly startling intensity its echoes will haunt you.

--Charlie Cockey

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