青春（苦）

Filmed between 2015 and 2019, Youth (Bitter) is Wang Bing’s striking look at the lives of struggling workers in the textile mills of Zhili. The film focuses on individual stories, such as one worker, Fu YUN, who repeatedly makes mistakes and is ridiculed by his peers. Meanwhile, another worker, Xu WANXIANG, cannot find his paybook and his boss does not pay him. While one group of workers watch their indebted boss beat up a supplier, in another mill the boss has disappeared and the workers are deprived of their wages, the fruits of their labor. Hu SIWEN recounts the 2011 Zhili riots, police brutality, incarceration and fear. After the tough bargaining, the workers return home to celebrate the New Year.

The film shows viewers the reality of a generation struggling to survive under the promise of economic expansion. Therefore, it leaves a deep impact on viewers not only while watching the film, but also afterwards. The film was shot in Zhili, China.