MANCHURIAN TIGER

Brilliantly directed tragicomedy about life’s hardships in Northern China. Ma is a formerly successful real estate mogul, by now deep in debt. It’s not just his family hunting him down but also the local triads. Meanwhile, his friend Xu has issues with his pregnant wife trying to force him to get rid of his dog. How can he save the mutt from the cooking pot? Director Jun Geng mixes the Coen brothers’ dark humour with Aki Kaurismäki’s laconicism and won the main prize at the Shanghai International Film Festival as a result.