How many joints, bottles of vodka and online loans does it take to live in a self-created communist hippy community declared as a “Republic” to keep the flame of idealism burning? I am not sure about the substances, but the 80000 yuan worth of debt and the broken heating in winter prove to be the limit.
Republic is screening at Berlin International Film Festival
In his six square meters big apartment (the bathroom is obviously somewhere outside the flat), Li Eryang is constantly visited by his like-minded friends and acquaintances or his “Cosmic Brothers and Sisters” who seem to be sharing the same views on life. But do they all, really? There is a lot of talk about the world's politics going on, with Eryang mostly taking over the conversations to hold long monologues about the book “The Governance of China” written by the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and chairman of the Central Military Commission, who is the country's president since 2013. Only one of his visitors questions this choice, and he is a man in his late 50's who has obviously experienced a proper communist dictatorship, long before his host was even born. But the man doesn't really fight the youngster about it, and choses to shrug it off with a sincere, open smile. He does admire the rest of the room though, complimenting the collection of records and the atmosphere.
Eryang is plotting an ideal society while listening to Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and classical music, all composed by the westerners who never had anything to do with the kind of revolution he has in mind. When properly stoned, he even communicates in English with one of his musician friends who is a frequent visitor of “Republic”.
“Here we're all about peace, light and love”, he muses, high as a kite before one of his regulars takes that statement literally and tries to sleep with his girlfriend Jioajiao without her consent. When the two confront him with a long list of WTFs, the guy doesn't seem to understand the concept of a woman's right to a “no” and defends himself with a speech that could have come straight from the 1960's communes that treated women as a shared good. Eryang luckily won't have it, and he calmly explains that it's always a girl's choice and that if the man wants to continue visiting them, he should ‘keep things pure'.
“Republic” stretches to almost two hours of runtime, which is its biggest challenge, but this marathon of boozy/stoned days and nights starts making sense towards the film's end, when the realization about the senselessness of the project kicks in. Not only in our minds, but in Eryang's as well. At he same time, the motives for the mobilization of like-minded young people in that space that offers debate on consumerism, nationalism and China's rapid industrial development is understandable. None of the young men and women who gather to escape the chaos of life outside of “Republic” talk nonsense. Their reflections on politics, class struggle and consumption are deep and fiery, their concerns genuine.
It is short of impressive how Jin Jiang managed to squeeze himself and his camera in a constantly crammed space. He came to the idea to shoot his third feature documentary afte rbeing taken to the “Republic” by one of his friends. The next day, he started filming.
The screening of “Republic” at the Berlinale Forum program marks its European premiere. The film was awarded with the Meceant Award for the Best Documentary at Busan International Film Festival, and we can see why.
