Sydney 2011 Review: THE DITCH
rating:4
Though long and at times monotonous, its hard to fault Chinese writer/director Wang Bings determination in bringing to life the sordid conditions that thousands of government officials had to endure between 1957 and 1961. Taking advantage of the Anti-Rightist Movement those intellectuals who dared to defy the state and totalitarian dictatorship of Mao were sent to the Gobi Desert to be re-educated through labour by digging an endless ditch and living in underground bunkers dug into the sand. Re-told in naturalistic, non-descript detail, the cramped claustrophobic conditions of the ditch dormitories appears vividly real and you gain a rare insight into their harrowing predicament. And it makes for a raw, at times uncomfortable viewing experience. Scenes such as when one old man catches a rat and boils it into a broth or when another eats the meaty fragments of someone elses spew capture a palpable sense of the desperation, in all its sordid hunger-ridden detail. Men die in the night and their bodies get routinely carted away in the morning. Authorities slurp on noodles insisting they cannot feed the prisoners anymore, while the detained starving men reminisce about delicious delicately prepared meals. One grief-stricken woman, who has just learned of her husbands fate, searches relentlessly for the whereabouts of his grave across severe endless sandy terrain. Its not a surprise to learn that Wang has a legacy for directing powerful documentaries. The Ditch marks his first foray into feature filmmaking, yet with its absent score and naturalistic lighting bestows tough documentary style realism.