YEDU

Film description

Two police officers, He and Huang, arrive in a small town in southern China to re-investigate a murder case in which a man was wrongly convicted fifteen years earlier. As they interview witnesses and piece together the course of the original investigation, they gradually uncover a truth that proves far darker than they could ever have imagined. The young Huang becomes increasingly uneasy about his senior colleague’s methods, and the investigation begins to reveal not only the mistakes of the past, but also deep-rooted violence and abuses of power. YEDU is a film that fits into the Chinese neo-noir genre, in which provincial towns become the setting for moral decay, and seemingly closed cases conceal mechanisms of corruption and impunity. In this stifling atmosphere, the line between the guardians of the law and those who stand above it gradually blurs.

The film is presented as part of the programme Subverted Gazes: Systemic Tension

Director’s Statement

“YEDU” was created during my third year at the Lodz Film School. At that time, China was going through the final and most intense period of the pandemic lockdowns. Although I was living in Poland, I was constantly following news and updates from China, while also hearing directly from my family and friends there. Gradually, I found it impossible to remain emotionally distant from what was happening, and I developed a strong impulse to return to China and make a film.

I decided to return to Lian-Yuan, the small city where I was born, and make the film independently. The experience of making the film gradually became part of its meaning. In “YEDU”, two policemen investigate an old case in a town where social relationships, silence, fear, and compromise make the truth increasingly difficult to reach. For me, the film is less about uncovering the truth of a murder than about the moral atmosphere surrounding it: how people lie, remain silent, avoid responsibility, or try not to become complicit. It is also about the fragile space of dignity and freedom that individuals attempt to preserve under pressure.