Why Chinese filmmaker Wang Bing is ‘puzzled’ by Cannes 2023 Palme d’Or nod for documentary about factory workers in China’s ‘brutal’ garment industry

Wang, regarded among China’s best documentary makers, is ‘surprised’ that ‘Youth (Spring)’ is featuring in Cannes’ main competition among ‘blockbusters’

He talks about his film that follows 20-something workers in a manufacturing hub, including their camaraderie, and why he mostly let the camera do the talking

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Wang Bing at the Cannes Film Festival. His documentary Youth (Spring), has been nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival, but the filmmaker admits to being ‘surprised’. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:15am, 24 May 2023

When Chinese documentary filmmaker Wang Bing heard that his new film Youth (Spring) had been selected for main competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, it was a case of mixed emotions.

“I didn’t really have high hopes we’d get in, so I was quite surprised,” the 55-year-old says.

“I’m a little puzzled by the whole thing. Because I consider this really quite a small film. All the rest are huge-budget, big-star blockbuster movies, it seems!”

By “all the rest’’, he’s referring to most of the other nominees – films like Henry VIII period drama Firebrand with Jude Law and Alicia Vikander, or Todd Haynes’ May December with Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman – that will compete for the festival’s prestigious top prize, the Palme d’Or, awarded this Saturday.

There aren’t really any “blockbusters” in competition, but next to Wang’s exhaustive look at the garment factory workforce in Zhili City, in China’s Zhejiang province, they must seem like it.

Wang began the film in 2014; he has since released seven films, including Eastern China immigrant story Bitter Money (2016) and the eight-hour historical documentary Dead Souls (2018).