• Director(s):

    COHEN (RENAUD)

  • Producer(s):

    ARTE FRANCE

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    2007

  • Language(s):

    German, English, French

  • Rights:

    NON-THEATRICAL, TV, VOD, DVD, INTERNET

Two hours from Shanghai, in the province of Jiangsu, the Chinese Communist Party created a "model village" in the 1960s with the aim of applying political and economical solutions recommended by the government, for the purposes of propaganda.

In the early 1980s, with the advent of Deng Xiaoping and economic reform, following the same process, the Party held the village up as a new model of "Chinese style capitalism". Results were quick to arrive - the new "liberal communism" made the inhabitants of the model village wealthy.
Every year, the Party sends a million communist executives, from both town and country, to visit the small town, now a sort of "Communistland", for a day of entertaining, political and studious "training".

In the village, methods of communist indoctrination are still used. People also reflect upon the mayor's point of view - "if you have the five treasures, a house, a car, money, a son and a good reputation, you are happy".

This documentary expresses the new Chinese ideal - capitalism controlled by the party - and how people live in the public eye, which is one of the faces of new China.