On April 6, 2018, Crows & Sparrows is pleased to co-present a free screening of Wang Xuebo’s directorial debut KNIFE IN THE CLEAR WATER at the Brattle Theatre.

Winner of the New Currents Award at the 2016 Busan International Film Festival and based on the short story by Shi Shuqing (who also co-wrote the screenplay), KNIFE IN THE CLEAR WATER is a stark and breathtaking portrayal of a rural Hui Muslim community in China’s Ningxia Province. After the death of his wife and as part of the mourning process, Ma Zishan is asked to sacrifice his only bull. Expressing with subtlety his emotional uncertainty between the call to honor the soul of his wife and his attachment to his most beloved animal, the film becomes an exquisite and psychogeographic exploration of loss, tradition, and transformation in the context of this marginalized community.

Following the film, please join us for a post-screening discussion led by Peng Hai, Ph.D. Candidate in Chinese Film History at Harvard University. This screening is co-sponsored by the Emergent Visions Series of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard, and is presented in conjunction with the Harvard Yenching Indigeneity and Environment Symposium.

Visit our screenings section for more details!