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Ma Wu Jia

Zhao Ye

Release year: 2007

Run time: 92 mins

Film type: Documentary

Synopsis

Ma Wu Jia lives with his sick mother and his younger brother, Wu Ding, in a small town in Guangxi Province. His brother suffers from kidney disease. Ma Wu Jia leaves school to take a job in a factory to support his family; he gives up running to become his brother’s blood donor; and, when his brother loses two fingers playing on a railway track, Ma Wu Jia sacrifices two of his own as transplants for Wu Ding. His life is one unending sacrifice … and yet, when he takes the biggest decision of his life towards the film’s end, some would still call him a bad boy.

 

Director biography

Zhao Ye (1979, China) graduated from Beijing Film Academy in 2004. He directed his first short, the animation Cai Wei, in 2004. His début feature Ma Wu Jia (2007) screened at numerous international film festivals and won the Best Picture Award at the China Independent Film Festival.