DEAD PIGS New Auteurs

Five lives collide in Cathy Yan’s quirky and comic debut. A bumbling pig farmer has an interest in VR and paying off his gangster loans, but his pigs are mysteriously dying and floating in the river towards Shanghai. His sister, a salon owner, battles against the giant real-estate company gentrifying her neighborhood. An American ex-pat architect starts a new life at the real-estate giant, seeking a piece of China’s wealth and a new start. A romantic waiter, having escaped his father’s pig farm, lies about his job and meets a spoiled rich girl in a clash of classes. DEAD PIGS sharply examines a contrasting China, where modern culture clashes with the traditional. – Sarah Harris