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CANNES, France - The director and cast of China's lone competitor for Cannes' coveted Palme d'Or award observed a minute of silence Saturday in memory of the victims of this week's devastating earthquake.
Director Jia Zhangke, whose film "24 City" was shot in Chengdu, in Sichuan province where the earthquake struck, halted a press conference at the film festival to stand and bow his head with actresses Joan Chen and Zhao Tao.
"I spent more than a year there," said the director, whose film is part-documentary and part-fiction. "What has happened there is extremely painful for us."
The importance for him of being at Cannes, he told AFP in an interview, "was to show the world the reality of Sichuan".
The government estimates more than 50,000 people were killed in the quake that struck on Monday -- the eve of the cast's departure for France.
"The people in this film are the people of that province," added Chinese-American actress Chen, who has worked with directors Oliver Stone and David Lynch as well as playing in "The Last Emperor" by Bernardo Bertolucci.
"We hope this film can help spiritually. We dedicate this film to Sichuan."
The subject of Jia's two-hour film, his second try for the prestigious Cannes trophy, is the changing face of China -- seen through the prism of a state-owned aeronautics plant, Factory 420.
As shooting begins, the plant is being closed down to give way to a complex of luxury apartments in Chengdu, called "24 City."
Chronicling the lives of three generations of workers as the plant is dismantled, Jia focuses his camera on eight characters -- some real, some fictional -- who recount their lives through the years.
Through the years of the planned economy to the Cultural Revolution to the lay-offs of the 1990s as China headed towards a market economy, the characters recount their life stories.
"I'm not judging socialism or collectivism. The events speak for themselves," Jia told AFP. "I'm interested in showing the influence of this period on individuals."
"People should not lack freedom because of an ideal."
From the difficulties of a laid-off worker to a woman who lost her child while travelling by boat to Factory 420, or another who worked so hard she never had a life, Jia covers 50 years of Chinese history.
"At first I was planning on shooting a documentary," he said. "But I ended up with so much rich and intense material that I decided to use actors for some of the film."
- AFP /ls
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