The 28. Venice International Film Critics’ Week is glad to unveil its seventh film in competition: Shuiyin Jie (Trap Street) by Chinese director Vivian Qu. Its world premiere is scheduled for Sunday 1 September. The film tells the Kafkaesque story of Li Qiuming, a young trainee at a digital mapping company, who falls in love with a mysterious woman. The search for the girl, who works in a secret laboratory, leads the young man to a journey into nightmare, through the twists and turns of bureaucracy and state control.
With a refined gaze and adroit staging, Vivian Qu debuts with a work that is filled at once with cinematic and social tension, presenting a portrait of contemporary China and, more widely, of a world dominated by the obsession with control.
Shuiyin Jie and the other films in competition at the Venice Critics’ Week are eligible for the 28. Venice International Film Critics’ Week – RaroVideo Audience Award, consisting of 5,000 Euro. Moreover, as all the debut features presented in the competitive sections of the Venice Film Festival, the film is eligible for the Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Award for a Debut Film. This prize, consisting of 100,000 USD, is offered by Aurelio and Luigi De Laurentiis’ Filmauro and will be equally divided between the director and the producer.
30.08 — 09.09