Film
An Elephant Sitting Still
- Director
- Hu Bo
- Certificate
- TBA
- Running Time
- 239 mins
In addition to all the Oscar contenders, the new year often brings a bracing dose of art house misery aimed at those who are heartily sick of the season of goodwill. Young first-time Chinese writer/director Hu Bo actually committed suicide before completing this one, so it also acts as his swansong.
Still, the target audience get nearly four hours in the company of a quartet of people whose lives have reached a dead end in a nondescript northern Chinese city, with plenty of philosophising and introspection along the way. This is definitely one for those who enjoy – if that’s the right term – the oeuvre of Bela Tarr. The title, incidentally, is derived from the myth of a contemplative pachyderm in the Russian border city of Manzhouli that ignores everything around it.
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