Best International Feature-length Documentary (2020)
Yu Gong
202084 minPG
Synopsis
China and Africa act as driving forces for the economic, political and cultural future of globalization leaving behind a “Provincialized Europe”. Yu Gong is a documentary and essay film that documents the complex Sino-African relations by travelling through eight countries in the Africa and China continent. It draws distinctive readings on the old Chinese fable of the foolish man Yu Gong who moved the mountains. In the film, four underlying narratives on the idea of Chinafrika are introduced. Yu Gong was shot in collaboration with author and curator John Becker on several research trips to China and Africa.
Credits
Director
Daniel Kötter
Daniel Kötter is a documentary filmmaker and theatre director. He has a strong interest in urbanization and political landscapes in Africa and West Asia. Between 2009–2015 he developed the series state-theatre on conditions of theatre architecture and urban performativity in Lagos, Tehran, Berlin, Detroit, Beirut, and Mönchengladbach (with Constanze Fischbeck). In 2014-2017 he worked with curator Jochen Becker on the research, exhibition, and film project CHINAFRIKA. Under construction. His film Hashti Tehran (2017) was awarded the German Short Film Award. Rift Finfinnee (2020), the film on urbanization in Ethiopia won the DEFA Award at DOK Leipzig. His recent film Landshaft (2023) won the award for Best Documentary from the German Film Critics’ Association.
