https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/0db01f19-8e4d-42af-9d52-ce276d83487d 'Comment Yukong Déplaça les Montagnes' / 'How Yukong Moved the Mountains' China, 1976, Joris Ivens & Marceline Loridan-Ivens Language Audio: ENG dub, Subs: N/A "1976 The film appeared at an opportune moment: China was attracting the attention of a broader public and not only that of a radical left wing elite. Corresponding developments in the Middle Kingdom served to stimulate this interest. After the death of Zhou Enlai in January 1976, a spontaneous demonstration took place in which millions of grieving Chinese made it clear, albeit implicitly, that they rejected the Cultural Revolution. Opportunities for political renewal increased on the death of Mao Zedong in September of the same year. Within a few short weeks, Marshal Ye Yianjing – who featured prominently together with Zhou Enlai in Ivens’ The 400 Million in 1938 – rounded up the Gang of Four. The path to modernisation opened by Zhou Enlai was vigorously followed by Deng Xiaoping. In February 1977, Ye Yianjing received Ivens and Loridan in Beijing and praised their work. At the end of the same year, the Chinese version of the Yukong film premiered in Beijing, after which multiple copies (into the hundreds) of five parts of the series were distributed throughout the country. Minister of Culture Houang Chen described the film as ‘a splendid event in the cultural life of our people’.[43] Joris Ivens underlined the role of his close friend Zhou Enlai in his vote of thanks: ‘C’est lui qui a energiquement soutenu un projet qui pour sa reussite avait besoin d’un champ d’observation tres large de la part de cineastes, et c’est lui qui a nous aidé à resoudre de differentes difficultés’.[44] Marceline Loridan-Ivens told the Chinese that they did not claim to have said all there was to say about China or about every aspect of the daily lives of the Chinese people, but that their film was intended to facilitate mutual understanding and respect between peoples separated by such incredible distances. The evening before, both filmmakers had had a lengthy conversation with the new president of the People’s Republic, Hua Guo Feng.[45] They also ‘had tea’ with Deng Xiaoping, the most powerful man behind the scenes. The only Chinese leader Ivens never met was Mao Zedong himself." -https://www.ivens.nl/ (https://www.ivens.nl/en/163-yukong-on-cannes-classics-2014) Thu, 09 Apr 2026 11:52:37 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://tankie.tube https://tankie.tube/lazy-static/avatars/3ba3ff73-a8b6-49c9-add8-9653ef090c7f.webp https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/0db01f19-8e4d-42af-9d52-ce276d83487d All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://tankie.tube/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.