Beijing Bicycle

Beijing Bicycle, directed by Wang Xiaoshuai, is a Chinese film paying open homage to Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves; it follows a young man who moves from the countryside to Beijing to work as a bicycle courier, only for the bike that's meant to become his own to be stolen and end up with a lower middle class high school student. The film won the Grand Jury Prize (Silver Bear) at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival; its two young leads shared the Piper Heidsieck New Talent Award. The film was banned in China until 2004, after producers sent it to Berlin without official government approval. Who it's for: anyone curious about a Chinese drama paying open homage to an Italian cinema classic, tracing class divides through the pursuit of a single bicycle, an award winner at Berlin. Who it's not for: viewers looking for a film with a smooth release in its home country, since this was banned in China for years over a procedural violation.