Lái Huí (Back and Forth) in development

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Recording the Field along the New Silk Road

A film project by Antoine Prum

In July 2022, when travel restrictions due to the pandemic were finally lifted, a small group of volunteers boarded a train from Berlin to Istanbul for a full-scale test of the ambitious film project Lái Huí (Back and Forth), which is scheduled to be shot in Spring 2024.

As part of this project, a group of Chinese artists led by poet and musician Yan Jun will embark on a train journey from the city of Chengdu to the small town of Bettembourg, Luxembourg’s main freight railway hub. They will follow the route of the New Silk Road with the intention of carrying out an “artistic audit” of China’s controversial geopolitical ambitions. Along the way, they will adopt the situationist practice of the dérive to engage in a series of largely improvised encounters on and off the train. The film will take the form of a poetic inventory of a world in transition, caught up in the whirlwind of a gigantic infrastructure project that aims to be “harmonious and inclusive”.

Lái Huí (Back and Forth) has received development support from Film Fund Luxembourg.

Produced by Paul Thiltges Distributions, Luxembourg, in coproduction with Ni-Vu-Ni-Connu and Natura Film, Tbilisi.