Berlin International Film Festival 2000

by Sun Zhou

Today's premiere of Breaking The Silence honours the film's star, Gong Li, president of the Berlinale jury. Director Sun Zhou and Gong decided to work together when they met on the set of Chen Kaige's The Emperor And The Assassin, in which they both acted. Sun co-wrote the script expressly for her, responding to her request for a simple role with real emotional depth.

Liying's life is going very well until she has her first (and only) child who turns out to be deaf and her cowardly husband divorces her.

She quits her well-paid job so that she can keep an eye on the boy round the clock. But the boy, bullied at school, becomes resentful and disturbed, and Liying begins to feel lonely and lost...

Sun's starting points were the desire to show present-day realities in China and the wish to see how contemporary women cope with their problems. The China Film Bureau didn't like the emphasis on unemployment and poverty and demanded some changes before approving the film for export. But Sun still found the overall experience very positive: "I learned many new things while making it."

Tony Rayns