One second the new film by chinese director Zhang Yimou, was removed Monday from the competition of the Berlin film festival, announced the organizers. “Due to technical difficulties during post-production, One second of Zhang Yimou will unfortunately not be presented on 15 February in the framework of the competition of the Berlinale”, has announced the festival in a press release, stating that the number of films in the competition going on as well from 17 to 16. “The festival will show a film chosen from among the previous works of Zhang Yimou”, he added.

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The film of Zhang Yimou, director emblematic of his country rewarded especially by the golden Bear in Berlin in 1988 for Red Sorghum , was to be shown at the Berlinale on Friday as a world premiere. It tells the story of a prisoner who escaped from his work camp during the cultural Revolution (1966-1976) to see a movie.

The films submitted to censorship in China

another chinese film, in the category of parallel Generation, Better Days ( Shao nian ni ) Derek Kwok-cheung Tsang, on the torments of the youth of the country, had already been removed from the playlist last week. The festival had announced that its four projections “had to be unfortunately cancelled”.

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the media, The internet and cinema are subject to close censorship in China, which has strengthened since the arrival to power of Xi Jinping in 2012. The television series the History of The palace Yanxi the costumes on a concubine who has risen to the summit of power in imperial China recently found itself in the crosshairs of the authorities, who want to focus of the works conforming to the ideals of the communists. Tv channels were removed from their programming.

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The films of Zhang Yimou and Derek Kwok-cheung Tsang are not the first chinese films to be déprogrammés at the last moment of film festivals. In 2017, the chinese film Have a nice day Liu Jian, critical on the failings of capitalism in contemporary China, in competition at the Berlinale, had been deprogrammed of the international animation film Festival of Annecy a few months later, due to the refusal of chinese authorities to grant him a release. China has adopted in 2016 a film law prohibiting content deemed detrimental to “the dignity, the honor and interests” of the country.