Only the River Flows
Contemporary Cinema
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1h 41m
Leaving November 1
Directed by Wei Shujun | 102 mins | 2023
After a woman’s body is discovered on a river bank in rural southern China, police investigator Ma Zhe (Zhu Yilong) finds that it’s only the first layer of a deepening mystery, bound up in the hidden life of the nearby community. Based on Yu Hua’s short novel "Mistakes by the River", Wei’s bleakly atmospheric neo-noir is laced with gallows humor and touches of the surreal, its grungy 16mm photography a hand-in-glove fit for the ’90s setting.
Up Next in Contemporary Cinema
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The Black Sea
Directed by Crystal Moselle and Derrick B. Harden | 93 mins | 2024
A compassionate, convivial, and deeply humane improvised comedy from Moselle ("The Wolfpack", "Skate Kitchen") and co-director Harden, inspired by the latter’s own experiences, "The Black Sea" stars Harden—also providing original... -
The Passengers of the Night
Leaving November 1
Directed by Mikhaël Hers | 115 mins | 2022
Charlotte Gainsbourg exudes a warm and earthy magnetism as Elisabeth, a mother who must rebuild herself after her husband walks out on the family, in this tender, textural evocation of 1980s Paris. While working for a late-night radio... -
Zama
Directed by Lucrecia Martel | 115 mins | 2017
A scruffy bureaucrat for the Spanish crown hopelessly angles for ways to get ahead in this audacious vision of 18th-century colonial empire, adapted from Antonio de Benedetto’s 1956 novel of the same name. Don Diego’s anti-epic progress in a far-flung...
