Berlin International Film Festival 2006

Dir: Zhang Yuan

Dir: Zhang Yuan

Not a children's film, but a film about children, 'Little Red Flowers' transcends the political metaphors of the novel on which it is based to create a vision of early childhood unique in world cinema.

A small boy is delivered by his father to an infant school where children live as though in an orphanage, with a mass dormitory where dozens of very small children live cheek by jowl under the watchful eyes of a small team of teachers and carers. Paper 'red flowers' are awarded to the children who manage their basic needs alone, getting up, washing, going to the toilet, eating their food, dressing. This gloomy old institution is a kind of childrens farm, rather than a kindergarten, and a real struggle for the little boy who strives to win at least one 'red flower', but responds to the curious stimuli of repression by developing a quirky individuality that expresses itself through sleep-walking to take a leak in the snow, to nocturnally stalking one of the teachers, who he has memorably renamed as 'Miss Monster'.

Zhang Yuan captures both the behaviour of these very young children and their moods, with a convincing impression of their motivation, achieving a remarkable balance between the adults who run the school and the lively and expressive children who are its principal characters. This was probably the most ambitious production in Berlin and worth adding to any subsequent Festival programme across the year.