Angels Wear White

In a small seaside town, two schoolgirls are assaulted by a middle-aged man in a motel. Mia, working reception that night, saw everything, but she has no identity papers and would lose the job if she spoke, so she says nothing. Wen, twelve, one of the victims, finds that the assault was where her difficulties began: her family, her school and the town all find closing the matter easier than talking to her. Vivian Qu does not show the assault. Nor is her interest in the attacker. It is in how everyone around them calculates. The police, the lawyer, the parents, the hotel owner; each looks for a version that protects their own position. The bond between the two girls is the only thing built outside that arithmetic. The film was selected for the main competition at Venice in 2017, the only Chinese entry that year. Vivian Qu won Best Director at the Golden Horse Awards. Its subject brought it censorship problems in China. Who it's for: Viewers who like Chinese cinema that builds social criticism coolly, and films about the silence that surrounds a crime. Who it's not for: The subject is heavy, resolution is close to absent, and the film never considers making the viewer comfortable.