The left wall

The left wall

Kazro Liu • 2025

Duration: 00:10:00
Language: Mandarin
Subtitles: Simplified Chinese, English, Traditional Chinese
Country/Region: Mainland China

The documentary The Left Walls turns its lens on the workers' new village — a relic of Mao Zedong era. It contrasts residents' nostalgic pride with the rusting walls they live among. The film reflects on the collective and communal life and the cultural spirit that shaped this community.

AWARDS & FESTIVALS

2025 Beijing International Film Festival, China

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

Kazro Liu

Kazro Liu

Director

The documentary The Left Walls unfolds as a triptych, with space serving as its storyteller. Wide-angle shots and horizontal camera movements highlight the order and elegance of Caoyang Xincun, while point-of-view tracking shots and handheld cinematography recreate the struggle and despair of Sitang Xincun. In contrast, the demolition of Dong’an Xincun is depicted in an experimental tone: embedded verses with special effects attempt to reconstruct the spiritual core of the “workers’ village” from an estranged perspective.The juxtaposition of the preserved, the decaying, and the demolished not only traces the gradual erasure of urban space, but also offers a quiet elegy for the fading ideals of the working class. Whether preserved or abonded, walls per se can never determine human will. For it, the world in the last analysis, it is yours.

TRAILER