ReviewBerlin 2024: Above the Dust – Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai evokes Christopher Nolan in history-minded rural drama

Above the Dust follows 10-year-old Wo Tu, who lives in a village in northeast China and wants his father to return home, hopefully bringing him a water pistol

He embarks on a surreal journey through his dead grandfather’s memories from the 1950s, looking at his appalling actions through Christopher Nolan-like scenes

2-MIN READ2-MIN

Above the Dust follows a 10-year-old boy in China who dreams of owning a water pistol, and who goes on a journey through his grandfather’s memories of the 1950s and his terrible misdeeds at the time.

Published: 7:15pm, 23 Feb 2024

3.5/5 stars

Chinese filmmaker Wang Xiaoshuai has dedicated a lot of his career to hard-hitting dramas about the drastic social and historical changes of his country. Who would have thought his latest film would lead to comparisons with Christopher Nolan’s blockbusters?

But that’s what Above the Dust entails, as its young protagonist’s dreams take the shape of an Inception-like journey through his recently deceased grandfather’s long-submerged, guilt-ridden memories of his life – including a key scene, à la Interstellar, in which he peers through a window frame to observe some of the old man’s appalling misdeeds.

Financed partly with Dutch funds and premiering at the Berlin International Film Festival, where Wang last appeared with his one-child-policy tragedy So Long, My Son in 2019, Above the Dust represents yet another step in the 57-year-old filmmaker’s attempts to diversify his storytelling technique on screen.