Sanctuary

China is currently marked by a phase of rapidly growing urbanization. The film in this context deals with two particular cities. Yum en a derelict ghost town and Or dos a mythic city of the future,both are deserted. They exist because of completely different reasons. The film shows through impressive images how these two cities and the relation of inhabitants to these cities are developing in China in times of urban growth.

The keepers are kept busy with animals under their care. These animals, although they've got the hint of their natural instinct left, are unlikely to survive if released back to the wild. It'd be difficult for them to take part in the pack and they lack the skills to find food. Nevertheless, the ultimate goal for everyone at the zoo is to send the animals back to where they truly belong.

Gulu is a village of Yi people, located beyond the cliff's edge in Sichuan, China, there is no electricity. The villagers used the lianas and Heaven-Ladders to climb up and down the cliffs like a monkey. They had hardly contact with the outside world until a mule-horse-trail out of the rocks in 2004. The substitute teacher Shen is the only teacher in the Gulu Primary School and has worked over 20 years. Shen would really like to become a real teacher, but he has just a middle school education. One day, the young man Bao who called himself 'Don Quixote' came to Gulu because of the lianas and Heaven-Ladders. He felt, Gulu was just his utopia. Since then Shen's fate has changed dramatically.

At the hospice, the average remaining time for patients is 21 days. These patients prepare for their deaths. Park Soo-Myeong is 40 something year old man who is also a husband and father. Kim Jung-Ja is a mother of two sons. Park Jin-Woo was a math teacher. Shin Chang-Yeol lived a lonely life.

What does it mean to care for a being that has nothing to do with you? How can we explain spending one’s youth in a rural mountain valley, enduring hardship to care for wild animals that, unlike pets, will never grow close to humans?

The experiences of five free-spirited individuals trying to break free from societal norms. Each narrative discusses creativity, mental health, labor activism and gender politics.