Expat Cinema Rotterdam

► ABOUT THE MOVIE
Black Dog follows the silent Lang (Eddie Peng), who returns to his hometown on the edge of the Gobi Desert after his imprisonment. As preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games are in full swing, Lang starts working for the local dog patrol, tasked with driving stray dogs out of the city. During his work, he becomes fascinated by a black dog named Xin, who everyone is afraid of. As Lang is confronted with his past, he forms an extraordinary bond with Xin.

Director Guan Hu illustrates how economic changes reach even the most remote areas and impact daily life. Black Dogblends elements of a crime thriller with striking landscape imagery, offering a unique perspective on the human connection with animals and the land. The film was awarded the Grand Jury Prize Palm Dog at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Best Film prize in the Un Certain Regard section.

► ABOUT THE MEETUP
Use the event chat on here to stay in touch. Depending on the group and peoples timing we can meet before and/or after film in the foyer or on the terrace (if the weather plays nicely)

Reminder: film with a short introduction starts at 19.00 sharp!

► ABOUT THE MOVIE
Apart from water, concrete is the most widely used material in the world, according to Viktor Kossakovsky in Architecton. With that observation, he conceptually links this final part of his ‘A-trilogy’ to the second installment, the water documentary Aquarela (2018), which in turn followed ¡Vivan las antipodas! (2011).

Visually, he connects the films through slow-motion footage in which falling rocks and boulders seem to flow like rivers. Accompanied by a score from composer Evgueni Galperine, these sequences lend a hypnotic power to this visual symphony on the building materials of concrete and stone. Kossakovsky moves from the temple ruins of Baal to Ukrainian buildings bombed by the Russian army, and from houses destroyed by earthquakes in Turkey to quarries where construction materials are extracted with brutal force.

His historical meditation on construction and destruction centers around a landscape project by Italian architect Michele De Lucchi, who, in protest against the impermanence of modern architecture and as a lesson in humility before nature, created a ‘magic circle’ in his garden—a space where no one is allowed to set foot.

► ABOUT THE MEETUP
Use the event chat on here to stay in touch. Depending on the group and peoples timing we can meet before and/or after film in the foyer or on the terrace (if the weather plays nicely)

Reminder: film with a short introduction starts at 19.00 sharp!