Icarus Films is pleased to announce the acquisition of distribution rights across all markets in the U.S. and Canada for Qiu Jiongjiong‘s “A New Old Play“, winner of numerous awards including the Jury Prize from the Locarno Film Festival.
The gorgeously stylized and bitingly sharp “A New Old Play” traces 50 years of art, struggle and love against the background of 20th-century China’s tumultuous history. Upon his death, Qiu Fu, leading clown of a renowned opera troupe, is welcomed into the Underworld where he vividly re-lives memories from his life one last time.
On March 18, 2022, “A New Old Play” made its North American Premiere as part of First Look at the Museum of the Moving Image, New York, and the Locarno Film Festival in Los Angeles at the Acropolis Cinema.
“A New Old Play” is part of the dGenerate Collection at Icarus Films, curated by Karin Chien, a leading library of independent films from mainland China.
About the film
A film by Qiu Jiongjiong. Hong Kong/France, 179 minutes, 16:9, 2021, In Chinese with English subtitles. Part of the dGenerate Collection at Icarus Films. An Icarus Films release.
One evening in the 1980s, Qiu Fu, a leading clown in 20th-century Sichuan opera, departs this world and must reluctantly set off for the Ghost City under the escort of two underworld officials. Along the way, he meets old friends. As they recall the past, earthly scenes creep into the mists of the Netherworld.
Qiu Fu’s life in opera unfolds against the backdrop of a secular upheaval. The “New-New” Troupe in which he grows up and learns his trade is affiliated with the military. As power shifts, the troupe is cast loose to wander rootlessly through a broken world. Despite this unsettled destiny, shaped by war, famine and political turmoil, Qiu Fu becomes one of the finest clown-role performers in Sichuan opera. And yet, one day he finds himself clapped in a pigsty as a political revolution rages outside.
Outside the Ghost City, sitting among familiar faces, Qiu Fu drinks the mandatory bowl of Forgetfulness Soup to erase his memory. A lifetime of hardship, pain and sorrow, all vanish as if they had never been.
