North American Premiere
From Wei Shujun, one of China’s most notable millennial filmmakers, Only the River Flows is a neo-noir set in the underdeveloped countryside in the early 1990s. A serial killer terrorizes a tiled-roof hamlet of barely 50 families. Detective Ma Zhe (Zhu Yilong) is in charge of the investigation and faces challenges that make his job even harder: his team is incompetent, the locals are cagey, and his wife is going through a difficult pregnancy. The time and location are no accident: the events in the film take place between the Tiananmen Square protests and China’s economic boom. Shame and secrecy are rampant and the killer takes full advantage of it. As the film progresses, the detective’s grasp of reality begins to falter and, by extension, the audience’s. Wei brings back the narrative sophistication of classic Chinese filmmakers. His pitch-black sense of humor and favoring of aesthetics over traditional storytelling turn what could have been a generic procedural into an unpredictable journey.
Wei Shujun’s third feature offers a mix of dead-end detective work, doomed characters and surreal dreamscapes. … What is not in doubt is his standing as one of China’s most complex cineastes.
Clarence Tsui, South China Morning Post
Zhu Yilong, Chloe Maayan, Hou Tianlai, Tong Linkai
China
2023
Panorama
In Mandarin with English subtitles
Graphic Violence
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Executive Producer
Tang Xiaohui, Dorothy Zeng, Li Chan
Producer
Tang Xiaohui, Huang Xufeng, Li Chan, Shen Yang
Screenwriter
Kang Chunlei, Wei Shujun
Cinematography
Chengma
Editor
Mattieu Laclau
Production Design
Zhang Menglun
Director
Wei Shujun
Wei Shujun was born in 1991 in Beijing, China. He started his career as an actor at 14 years old. He completed his master degree at the Communication University of China. His films include On the Border (short, 2018, Special Jury Award at Cannes Film Festival), Striding into the Wind (2020, Official Selection Cannes Film Festival) and Ripples of Life (2021, Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes).
Filmography: Striding into the Wind (2020); Ripples of Life (2021)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Sirât
A desperate father (Sergi Lopez) searchers for his missing daughter through the spiritual wasteland of the Moroccan desert. An unforgettable sensory powerhouse, Sîrat will have you riveted and rattled for hours after the end credits have rolled.
2026 Oscar® Shorts (Documentary)
Don't come to the program of Oscar®-nominated documentary shorts for escapism. But let's talk about the Canadian contender, Perfectly a Strangeness, featuring an abandoned observatory and three donkeys. More of this, please.
Emergence: Women in the Storm
Stories of resistance and recovery, courage, creativity and community in the face of the climate emergency gleaned from women first responders and those impacted in Western Canada, particularly Lytton and the Fraser Valley.
