Chinese film "Crosscurrent" premieres at Berlinale

The only Chinese film "Crosscurrent" selected to compete for the Golden Bear at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival, also called the Berlinale, saw its world premiere here on Monday.

The magic realism film "Crosscurrent", in Chinese "Chang Jiang Tu", directed by Chinese director Yang Chao, told a love story on the Yangtze river.

In the film, Gao Chun, a young captain, steers his cargo boat up the Yangtze river while looking for the love of his life. However, all the women he meets in all the different ports are the same person. His trip up river turns into a journey through space and time.

Born in 1974, Yang won the Cannes Golden Camera special award in 2004 with his film "Passenger".

According to Yang, the idea of making the film "Crosscurrent" came to him in 2006. Due to the time-consuming post-production, the film took four years to complete.

As to the symbolic meaning of the Yangtze river in the film, Yang said, as one Mother River of China, Yangtze river and women have an amazing correspondence. Meanwhile, the river, as the background for this love story, is not only a river of space, but a river of time.

The Hollywood Reporter said in a film review that "as the ultimate romantic Chinese travelogue, the film delivers aesthetic pleasures far beyond the ken of National Geographic."

From Feb. 11 to 21, a total of 434 films from 77 countries and regions will be screened at the festival, among which 18 films will run for the Golden and Silver Bears.

Three-time Oscar-winner and American actress Meryl Streep will serve as jury president of the seven-member international panel, which decides who will receive the Golden Bear and Silver Bear awards of the 2016 Berlinale competition. Endit