Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (2002)

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress 2002 / 巴尔扎克与小裁缝 2002 / Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse Chinoise , Ba Er Zha Ke Yu Xiao Cai Feng , 巴尔扎克和小裁缝 , The Little Chinese Seamstress

The story revolves around two young Chinese boys of bourgeois background who were sent to a remote village in Sichuan province for three years of re-education during the Cultural Revolution. They both fell in love with a beautiful local girl, granddaughter of an old tailor and known to everyone as the ‟Little Seamstress‟. During those years of intellectual oppression, the three found solace and liberation in a collection of banned translated novels by Western authors, among whom their favourite was Balzac. The film explores the themes of youth, love, and freedom in those dark times in China. ~~ Adapted from the 2000 semi-autobiographical novel of the same title by Dai.