One Summer

Directed by

Yang Yishu

One summer night, Zhen Liu’s husband, Xiao Ping, is arrested out of the blue and cannot be reached after being dragged away by the police 30 days earlier. Liu goes to the police in search of information about her husband, but to no avail. Her husband’s sudden disappearance slowly destroys her while her relationship with her kindergarten-age daughter becomes rocky as well. She visits her husband’s friends to ask for their help, but gets only various assumptions about his arrest in return. Liu manages to bring her former boyfriend and attorney Lv Xin on board and together they search for her husband. Thanks to Lv Xin’s connections, they locate where her husband is, but the police’s unreasonably demanding requests eventually discourage her husband’s release. An unassuming examination, shown in documentary style, of a Chinese society helpless under state power.