Ascension

Fascinating portrait of the modern Chinese Dream. From a job market where aspiring factory workers hope to find employment, to the growing middle class and the extremely rich. Told in sharply observed scenes which are in turn mesmerizingly beautiful and extremely stifling.

A brilliant look at contemporary China, shot in over 50 locations throughout the country. We see women making silicone sex dolls with welding irons, discussing the perfect colour for their nipples and screwing on their heads. A factory where Donald Trump’s ‘Keep America Great’ merchandise is fabricated. Women in a business etiquette workshop learning that ‘every Chinese woman is a pretty Chinese business card’ and that a perfect smile contains eight visible upper teeth.

And much, much more in this hypnotic and often surreal observational documentary in the tradition of Koyaanisqatsi. We witness a system in which individuality is all but erased, but where people still find their humanity. A system, also, with which the western world is getting more and more intertwined. Subtly underlined by Dan Deacon’s very effective musical score.