On the Bridge of Death and Life

Every weekend, Chen Si makes his rounds on the Yangtze Bridge in Nanjing to stop suicidal people from jumping to their deaths. In the last 10 years, he has rescued over 200 desperate people, most of whom are migrant workers from the provinces in search of a better life. They speak openly about the problems they can no longer endure. Betrayed and degraded by representatives of the state or their employers, they are ashamed of not having lived up to the expectations of their families and the goals they have set themselves. As much as we learn about the rescued people and their living conditions in the course of the film, the densely edited film circles ever closer around the main hero Chen Si. His blood is poisoned with lead from the exhaust fumes and he increasingly tries to banish the shadows of his soul with alcohol. At the end of the movie and after a long night of karaoke, a deep sense of foreboding breaks through him to certainty: I’m no hero and no good guy, but he still can’t let go of his good deeds. Who will save him?

A film by Lola Jia LIU, 97 + 52 min., HD German subtitles. A co-production of Lichtfilm with ZDF – Das kleine Fernsehspiel, supported by the Film- und Medienstiftung.
World premiere at the IDFA on November 24, 2016.
First broadcast on 6.3.2017.

Here you can watch the trailer directly and then watch the whole movie, or buy the video for private use.