Eternal Spring (長春)

The thrilling and emotional story of a group of Falun Gong practitioners who managed to shortly take over Chinese state TV. A story of immense bravery and life under totalitarian rule. Animation and documentary ingenuously combined with breathtaking result.

‘History has taught Chinese people a lesson,’ we hear at the beginning of Eternal Spring (長春). ‘Dare to stand up to the Party, and you will suffer.’ However, standing up to the Chinese Communist Party was exactly what a group of members of outlawed spiritual group Falun Gong did. On 5 March 2002, they broke into a broadcast of Chinese state TV and played a video about the movement.

Their story is made into an animation by cartoonist Daxiong, himself a Falun Gong member. His breathtaking and thrilling animated scenes are interspersed with interviews with many of the main characters – that is: the ones who survived and managed to flee China. Next to the gripping stories about people such as ‘Mr. White’, fearless and passionate ‘Big Truck’ and mastermind Liang – a master in secret guerrilla information campaigns – Daxiong contemplates his own choices and dilemmas, and confronts his pain.