In
telling his story, “Anti-Rightist” Campaign survivor Zhang Xianchi fittingly
quotes Georg Büchner’s famous line from Danton’s
Death: “Revolution is like Saturn, it devours its own children.” Further
passages from the German play would also resonate with Zhang’s oral history,
such as: “The sin is in our thoughts” and “Your words smell of corpses.” The dramatic
references would be appropriate, considering the expressionistic theatricality
of Qiu Jiongjiong’s boldly experimental hybrid-documentary Mr. Zhang Believes (trailer here), which screens during the 2015 Vancouver International Film Festival.
Qiu
will indeed talk to Zhang and his remaining “Rightist”-denounced colleagues,
but even these sequences have a bit of visual kick to them. However, must of
the film dramatizes his story in highly stylized stage sets and sound stages,
much like an old school Maoist propaganda pageant or a Brecht production before
that. This is itself is a rather bold strategy, using the Party’s own
techniques to criticize it. Yet, there is no shortage of substance underpinning
the style.
Zhang
spent years in Maoist-era work camps, but most of the film is devoted to
explaining how he got there. Although Zhang’s father was a low level KMT
official, he had once been a Communist and it is he who first radicalizes his
son out of some misplaced nostalgia that he probably regretted. Still, it is because
of his demonstrable record of revolutionary subversion and blinding zeal that
Zhang is initially accepted into the PLA.
Time
and again, Zhang witnesses Party hypocrisy during his military service, but he
resolutely clings to his illusions. However, it becomes even harder to kid
himself when he and his new wife Hu Jun and their families struggle to survive
due to their “class enemy” heritage. Unfortunately, all their remaining self-delusions
will be crushed during the Anti-Rightist Campaign. Using Zhang’s testimony, Qiu
clearly establishes the deceptive nature of the “Thousand Flowers” Campaign,
inviting criticism from progressive true believers like Zhang and Hu Jun, so
that it could subsequently label them “Rightists” and purge them accordingly.
Of course, that only left sycophants and psychopaths in positions of power,
exactly as the Party wanted. Yet, Zhang slyly observes his most enthusiastic
tormentors had even worse done unto them during the Cultural Revolution. Cue
Danton.
Mr. Zhang Believes
defies
just about every manifestation of authority imaginable, including the
political, ideological, and aesthetic. However, it is not experimental for the
sake of experimentalism. As an accomplished painter, Qiu has a strong sense of
composition. With cinematographer Peng Fan he creates some staggering
black-and-white imagery. Frankly, there is not a thrown-away second of the
film. Each frame is artfully arranged and suitable for framing, even though
they often depict great tragedy.
There
are also real performances unfolding on-screen. Jimmy Zhang plays Zhang Xianchi
as a guileless but credible everyman, often too studious for his own good,
while Ma Xiao’ou is acutely haunting as the ill-fated Hu Jun. Arguably though,
one of Qiu’s most effective decisions is his use of Zhang’s young adoring
sister Ba Mei (whom he and Hu Jun temporarily adopt for his mother’s sake) as
the innocent witness. Engagingly played by Cai Yifan, she metaphorically serves
as the Shakespearean character who survives to tell the tale.
