‘You have no choice about being here, you’ll have no choice about when you leave’ proclaims a woman in Xiaolu Guo’s latest film, a documentary about the personal and physical journeys of the people of London’s East End. Herself an immigrant to the area, Guo’s sensitive character studies hint at an affinity with the push and pull of feelings of alienation, a theme she has previously explored as a filmmaker (She a Chinese, LFF 2009) and novelist (A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers). This empathy is also apparent in her playful stylistic approach that layers Warhol-esque news reports, archival material and a soundtrack including Linton Kwesi Johnson and Fela Kuti, to comment on the human cost of capitalism. The resulting film is both a penetrating portrait of a frenetic place that feels deeply authentic, and a powerful piece of protest film.

Acclaimed writer and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo delivers another deeply intelligent and idiosyncratic essay, located between contemporary China and post-Brexit referendum London.

Examine the tremendous moral and human cost of creating a 'New China' for the 2008 Olympics. As traditional communities are bulldozed to make way for modern high-rise apartments and ancient traditions are cast aside, just who is benefitting?

Three love stories that take place in the modern 'internet age'

A dreamed trip between village and city, between reality and fiction in a chaotic China.

Kwok Yun is a simple woman who leads a peasant’s life in the peaceful mountains around remote Three-Headed Bird Village. One day, after a countryside tryst with a married man, she sees a UFO – a giant glowing thing in the shape of a dumpling! The ambitious village leader Chief Chang takes advantage of the sighting, stimulating tourism with UFO tours and getting the local economy roaring with progress. Busy aspiring to strengthen relations with the USA, she is blind to the dangers such radical change can bring.

远离都市喧嚣，闲适的田园生活令文刚（尤勇 饰）小霞（桃子 饰）夫妇好不得意，可这一切都被老林（夏新 饰）夫妻的到来打破。从林夫人口中得知保险公司雷安安（俞飞鸿 饰）至今未婚，她是文刚的初恋情人。郁闷一夜的小霞带着解不开的疑问上班刚走，雷安安冒雨不期而至，还未等文刚从惊诧中回过神来，小霞的父母等一大家子人涌了进来，慌不择路的安安穿着文刚的睡衣躲进了储藏室。全家人说说笑笑，根本没有马上走的样子，文刚急得象热锅上的蚂蚁穷于应付。下班回家的小霞发现文刚魂不守含，顿时产生怀疑。入夜，大家各自进卧室休息，唯独小霞的弟弟和女友珠珠非要睡客厅沙发。文刚蹑手蹑脚想放走安安，可储藏室的钥匙不见了......

Film shows the present state of China through twelve platforms, an old farmer, a middle aged waitress, a car washer, a weapons dealer, fish store owners, a barber, a factory owner, a park ranger, a shopping mall employee, etc. These various faces of the so-called proletarian class ask, what is a dream? Answers to this question exist in the interview with each character, but is conveyed much more clearly through the black and white image of the children putting up their future as security as shots are heard continually behind them.

This is the story of Mei, a young woman on a trip from East to West after her escape from her provincial Chinese village. Beginning in Chongqing and a disastrous factory job, Mei soon heads out for London and a marriage to an older man where her entrapment begins anew.