International Title: Keep eyes on that van

Original Title: 向夜而后知生

Running Time: 106′

Year: 2022

Genre: Drama

Language: Gansu Chinese

Country: China, Spain

Synopsis:

In a small town in northwest China, a construction company has to lay off the entire construction brigade of the town because they did not handle the worker-peasant relationship well.
On the eve of construction, the captain of the construction crew died of a brain hemorrhage in the mountains near the construction site.
The family of the deceased had to take the body to the brigade as a threat, and the brigade sent a car to chase the family’s car and prevent the body from being dragged away.
A day and night of chase, the people in the car faced with the life and death situation quietly changed.

Director’s Statement:

The film “Keep eyes on that van” comes from a true story.

When I first saw this story, I was impressed by the fact that dramatic events happen everywhere in life. However, what motivated me to present it as a film was the helplessness of the characters in the story who were pushed by life and the absurd reality they faced.

The story has taken place on a construction site in the mountains, where everyone is “acting” together, holding their own benefits and maintaining a continuous chain of interests. The “accidental” death of Xu Laowai, the owner of the contracting team, broke the peace, and a game about the compensation amount started. The two arranged cars were like hands on a clock, reacting in real time to the results of the negotiations. A day and night of chase, the people in the car feel life and face death. Chen Ren’s plight, Cui Ming’s hardship, Li Xunguang’s confusion, some accept the fate of the arrangement, some have quietly changed. No one knows who won the game, and nothing seems to have happened on the site.

Xu Laowai’s “accidental” death broke the peace, and now I am also struggling to get “accidental”.

Zhou Zhe