Opening at the IFC Center in NY on June 5, “24 City” is the latest envelope-pushing movie by Jia Zhang-ke. Incorporating fictional elements, this documentary casts a cold and clinical eye on the new China and expresses nostalgia for the Maoist system symbolized by an actual state-owned munitions factory replete with “Iron rice bowl” support pillars. Named “Factory 240”, as an internal security code for the Chengdu Engine Group, it is about to be relocated in order to make room for an enormous real estate development geared to China’s rising professional classes and called “24 City”.

The movie consists of interviews with the actual workers, all male, middle-aged, and harboring sympathies for the Maoist system to one degree or another, as well as with three actresses who narrate experiences in line with the real workers. This device allows Zhang-ke to highlight certain themes crucial to the telling of this story.

See full review and clip at The Unrepentant Marxist