Man in Black

Wang Xilin, 86, is one of China’s most important modern classical composers. During the Cultural Revolution he was the target of severe persecution, enduring beatings, imprisonment and torture. The film exhibits the body and soul of a man scarred by a life of suffering, a “man in black” who is yet still capable of deep and sincere compassion. With excerpts from his Symphonies, he revisits some of the horrifying events that still live on in his memory as testimony to an era that saw the dehumanization of the entire Chinese nation. (Cannes Film Festival)