A documentary that chronicles artist and activist Ai Weiwei as he prepares for a series of exhibitions and gets into an increasing number of clashes with the Chinese government.
A Sundance special jury winner, Alison Klayman’s debut doc is a remarkable portrait of a portrait of a remarkable artist.
Klayman exploits the opportunity to follow a man at the eye of a cultural and political storm, although more detail on his creative process and private life would have welcome.
The verité results gives us a real sense of history being captured in the making, with Klayman also smartly incorporating Ai’s own determination to document his life using modern technology – camera phones, Twitter, blogging – to give us an astonishing insight into the way the Chinese authorities suppress free speech, as well as the lengths some people are prepared to go to fight for it.
It’s not the most rounded of views, but this is still a stirring portrait of one of the leading critics of the Chinese authorities.
Ai Weiwei himself is a rather mysterious, opaque figure, but utterly confident and unafraid of state bullies. He is heroic.
Alison Klayman's portrait of the Chinese artist and provocateur Ai Weiwei offers some insight into the position of freethinkers and intellectuals inside modern China.
The film offers a sobering insight into what it means to be an artist and a dissident in a country such as China (where even an earthquake's death toll is a state secret). It's less illuminating on the specific nature and meanings of Ai's art.
A lively, informative, funny and inspirational portrait of a courageous, charismatic, highly original man.
Klayman's achievement is in providing a detailed depiction of how China suppresses dissent and how one man has become such a potent voice of resistance, as the David and Goliath battle continues to play out across a kaleidoscopic media landscape.
Success is being in right place at the right time
Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee from Friday August 17, 2012, until Thursday August 23, 2012. More info: www.dca.org.uk
Edinburgh Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Tuesday August 28, 2012, until Thursday August 30, 2012. More info: www.filmhousecinema.com
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