Three Sisters

Wang Bing's documentary is set in a small village in the mountains of Yunnan. Three sisters and their daily life: looking after animals, cooking, sorting potatoes, waiting in the cold. Their father is away working and the children spend most of the day on their own. The film makes no commentary, takes no interviews and pities nobody; it simply stays and watches. Poverty here is not a topic but the texture of the scene, visible through mud, smoke and repeated chores. At over two and a half hours it asks for patience, and the whole meaning of the film is in that patience. It is a hard, unornamented example of observational documentary.