EAST PALACE, WEST PALACE (DONG GONG XI GONG) World Cinema

Screened in Un Certain Regard
at Cannes, this controversial and
compelling film centers on a sensitive
young gay writer who is arrested at
his favorite cruising ground and held
by the police for intensive
interrogation. The questioning quickly
transforms into an unwanted runthrough
of his tumultuous life, seen in
flashbacks: his childhood, parents,
school, first sexual experience, and
politics. His seductive manner begins
to alternately fascinate and repulse the
policeman, who is drawn to the
complexities of pleasure and pain.