Sino paradiso

The Italians have a long love affair with cinema. Their affection for the silver screen is so strong they even made a film about it: Cinema Paradiso. Mainland director Xiao Jiang's conviction that her compatriots once shared this passion is the theme of her directorial debut, Electric Shadows, a gentle drama scheduled for release in China later this month.

Xiao says people in Cultural Revolution China had an obsession with movies, even though their viewing was limited to propaganda films. Electric Shadows, which opens in Hong Kong later this year, has been called the Chinese Cinema Paradiso, and is being released to celebrate the centenary of Chinese filmmaking.

'Propaganda films were one of the only forms of entertainment available during the Cultural Revolution and directly after,' says Xiao at a film festival in Holland. 'But the fact that they were propaganda didn't mean that people loved the movies any less. Their feelings for cinema ran very strong and deep.'

Electric Shadows, which is the literal translation of dianying, the Putonghua word for cinema, charts China's movie obsession from 1971 to the present day. The film begins when movie fan Jiang gives birth to her illegitimate daughter, Ling Ling, in a projection booth. Ling grows up a fan, sneaking into cinemas and living for the thrill of the light hitting the screen.

The passage of time is marked by clips from Chinese movies that audiences were watching at that time - everything from re-releases of Shanghai classics such as 1937's Street Angel to propaganda films such as 1971's The Red Detachment of Women.

'Back in those days, the only films on offer were local productions and films from communist countries in Eastern Europe,' says Xiao. 'Even though the ideas and themes of the films were limited, they seemed varied to the people who saw them. They were so isolated from other influences, they lapped them up.' There are a lot of movie clips in Electric Shadows, but Xiao gives precedence to a few films, including Shining Red Star (1974), a propaganda film made by the Red Army film studio August First. It was a story about a boy hero, Pan Dongzh, who battled the Japanese in the anti-Japanese war. Pan was meant to be a role model for Chinese boys.