“As a Mainland Chinese filmmaker, I think world cinema needs to move away from its focus on specific cultural identities?to go further, and to do something broader and wilder.” ? Guo Xiaolu Mei is a young Chinese woman feeling trapped by life in her staid provincial village. Out of the blue she packs up and heads to Chongqing. That marks the beginning of a journey half way around the world as Mei searches for self and a life less ordinary. What she finds is a remarkable crossover of cultures, lives and people indicative of our 21st century world. Mei’s perpetual hardship isn’t the driving story. Instead, the fleeting nature of happiness, stability and love are illuminated in her travels. The dynamics of identity are explored in Mei’s host of “roles”: village girl, prostitute, trophy wife, as a complement to being Chinese?and whatever that entails in 2009. That is something Mei strives to figure out, and whether or not she does is the film’s final question?one that is never answered. Winner of the Golden Leopard at Locarno in 2009.