The Ditch
The Ditch
| 06 September 2010 (USA)
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The film focuses on the suffering of Chinese who were imprisoned in a forced labor camp called Jiabiangou in the Gobi Desert in winter 1960 under Mao Zedong on the grounds that they were "rightist elements". The film tells of the harsh life of these men, who coped with physical exhaustion, extreme cold, starvation and death on a daily basis.

Reviews
Karry

Best movie of this year hands down!

Orla Zuniga

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

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Ella-May O'Brien

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

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Aspen Orson

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

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corrosion-2

There are some films that you enjoy and some that you admire but not necessarily enjoy watching. The Ditch comes under the latter category. This enactment of the brutalities handed out to some Chinese citizens in late fifties & early sixties by the Mao regime, under the guise of "Re-Education", is certainly tough going. In fact there were several walkouts in the screening that I attended. Although The Ditch is a well made film with realistic performances and tightly controlled direction, it does raise the question of what is necessary to be shown on the screen and what should be left to the viewer's imagination. As an example, a graphic depiction of some one throwing up food and another prisoner feeding himself on the vomit is not everybody's idea of entertainment or even enlightenment. But, as a piece of film making and a history lesson, The Ditch has many worthwhile attributes though one may want to look the other way during certain scenes.

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