TO LIVE TO SING

by Johnny Ma (Huo zhe chang zhe, Chine-France, 2019, 1h45, vostf)

starring  Zhao Xiaoli, Gan Guidan, Yan Xihu

Zhao Li is the director of a traditional opera company which lives and performs its productions in a dilapidated theatre in the outskirts of Chengdu. When she receives a demolition notice on the building, she conceals the news from the rest of the company, for fear that it will sound a death knell. She decides to fight to find a new place where they can all carry on living and singing. And so begins a fight for the survival of their art.