I saw this film in the Rotterdam film festival 2013, as part of the Spectrum section. It is about an ailing mother, actually alone in her fight against the Chinese judicial system. It left me behind feeling a bit depressed. Portraying judicial procedures in China with limited budget, yet having so much impact on the viewer, is an achievement in itself.
We see many things work against our main character, each more or less trivial in itself, but all adding up to a feeling of hopelessness: no heating in her apartment, a xerox machine that fails, and more such obstacles. The many people initially circling around her, all saying to be there to support her cause, seem primarily interested in documenting the proceedings to get a better handle on future cases. They are less helpful in this particular case. She dismisses them halfway the film, to continue on her own devices in spite of her many limitations.
The final death sentence is read in her presence, although days late, leaving minimal chance to fight against the ruling. The fact that her son was arrested while riding an unlicensed bike, was repeated so many times in the verdict, that it bordered on the ridicule, given that it was actually a death sentence for a much more serious crime.
One can ask, if the son was really guilty of stabbing 6 policemen to death, why there was any need at all to put his mother in a mental hospital for half a year. Same with shady procedures around his legal counsel and the overall lack of proper defense. From the final Q&A we learned that no official explanation was given. Such is not unusual, in fact standard operating procedure. It fits similar observations we read in our newspapers. This is what we consistently hear about China, where the system is deemed more important than the individual (in times of the Cultural Revolution it was even dangerous to be called an individual, and this residual seems still prominent).
The mother works many long days to write a testimony (we don't know what it contains). She eventually sends it off, but to no avail (probably lost in the bureaucracy). In the final Q&A we heard that the film makers had established a limited contact with the real mother, but on her request only by e-mail.
All in all, the resulting film is impressive. The slow pace seamlessly blends in with the hopelessness of the cause and the loneliness of the mother. This portrait of contemporary China sticks in your mind. We'll never know whether this was a rare incident, or common practice still existing nowadays. The fact that our newspapers report about cases that are treated similarly, can be the tip of the proverbial iceberg hiding improper justice as a matter of course in China. On the other hand, China is not a 3rd world country anymore, and it is safe to assume that the judicial system has made an effort to outgrow ancient atrocities.
