Petition
The documentary looks at the world of “petitioners,” people who’ve come from all over China to Beijing’s Complaints Office. They plead their case against the injustices they’ve suffered and desperately wait for news of a resolution in decrepit shantytowns. The petitioners include peasants thrown off their land, workers from liquidized factories, small homeowners who received no compensation when their homes were demolished. Thugs hired by the local government chase and pressure them to return home lest the municipality get a bad name.
Following the saga of one group of petitioners in 1996–2008, Petition reveals a story of those unwilling to accept defeat. Seemingly unable to do anything but wait, the petitioners enter a strange and often terrifying zone, gradually losing touch with family and friends back home, and with the cruel reality of their situation. Until their shantytown was destroyed to make way for a new train station for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the film was shot surreptitiously from the point of view of the petitioners. A unique testimony on today’s China.
Zhao Liang is an independent documentary filmmaker, as well as a multimedia artist in photography and video art. His 2021 film I’m So Sorry focuses on the historical events and the current situation of humanity’s nuclear disaster in the context of global climate crisis. In 2015, Behemoth made history by being selected for the main competition section of the Venice Film Festival. The 2009 documentary film Petition was featured in the New York Times, was selected for the 62nd Cannes Film Festival and the 61st Locarno Film Festival, as well as won the Humanitarian Award (Documentary) at the 34th Hong Kong International Film Festival and the Best Film Award at the 7th Doclisboa Film Festival.
