WALKING TO SCHOOL

WALKING TO SCHOOL (ZOU LU SHANG XUE), 2009
Çhna | 35mm, Color, 90’ | Mandarin
Directors: Jiahuang Peng, Peng Chen
Cast: Anamuling, Xiwen Cao, Yifei Chen

In a remote mountain village in southern China's Yunnan province, Naxiang (Anamuling), the teenage daughter of a Lisu minority family, can only attend school using a rusty old zip line across a dangerous river. Agile Naxiang isn't fazed, but her 7-year-old brother, Wawa (Ding Jiali), desperately wants to have a go, which worries teaching intern Miss Nie (Cao Xiwen), newly arrived from Shenzhen. Having a pretty young outsider modernize rural traditions is a long-established device in mainland Chinese cinema, but the film largely concentrates on the two younger leads, charmingly played and lightly directed.