One Second

A man escapes a labour reform camp during the Cultural Revolution with one aim: to see the footage of his dead daughter in a newsreel. His path crosses that of an orphan girl who has stolen the reel, and both chase the same strip of film. Zhang Yimou directed. The source is Yan Geling's novel The Criminal Lu Yanshi; the author was left off the credits, which caused controversy. The film was selected for the Golden Bear competition in Berlin but withdrew before its screening. The official explanation was technical difficulties; most critics assumed censorship over its Cultural Revolution content. It opened in China on 27 November 2020. Rotten Tomatoes has all 25 reviews positive, Metacritic 79. Zhang won Best Director at the 2021 Asian Film Awards and Liu Haocun won Best Newcomer. It later played Toronto and Sydney and reached Australian cinemas in January 2022. The idea at its centre is plain: cinema is a carrier of memory, and one second of footage can be everything a person has left. Who it is for: viewers who like films about film and Zhang in his spare register. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a reckoning with the politics of the period. The Cultural Revolution is background here, and the film keeps itself contained.