China’s newest film festival a hit in provincial Pingyao, with cinemas packed, young directors championed, John Woo mobbed

A t the world premiere of Depi last month , 15 minutes before the film was due to start, the cinema was almost full. By the time the movie began, young people were clogging the aisles, leaning against walls and sprawled on the floor, much like the youthful Godards and Truffauts who crammed into the Cinémathèque Française every evening in the 1950s, watching anything and everything that unspooled before them.