Underground Fragrance (2015)

Yong Le, a young migrant worker from the south, salvages furniture to re-sell. He lives in a room in Beijing’s Underground City, a labyrinthian former bomb shelter that serves as cheap housing for people looking for opportunity in the big city. But after a bad work accident leaves him temporarily blind, he has to use a rope to find his way around the dimly lit basement halls, until the night he meets a girl at the other end of his rope... Xiao Yun, is a migrant too. She is desperately trying to find new employment so that she can leave her job pole dancing at nights. At ground level, old Lao Jin has been struggling for years to get compensation from the authorities who want to demolish his house. And he’s counting on Yong Le to sell his furniture at a good price. Three lives propelled by the “Chinese Dream” intermingle in the vast melting pot of the Beijing metropolis.

China, France / 2015 / 75min / DCP / Colour