Xiangzidian Village: The Stage

One night, kept awake by highway construction outside his window, the filmmaker realises that a road will soon cut through his hometown, Xiangzidian Village. He sets up a camera to document the process, as the building site becomes a modern stage where his family’s joys and sorrows, partings and reunions play out.

Hu Sanshou: ‘I have made two films about the highway construction in my hometown. The first, Resurrection, documents how the relocation of graves for the highway “resurrected” the deceased, bringing them back into the world of Xiangzidian. The second, Xiangzidian Village: The Stage, frames the construction as a process of setting up a stage, where the villagers of Xiangzidian appear successively as sojourners, onlookers, builders and witnesses.

As a native of Xiangzidian, I recorded the village’s transformation during the highway’s construction from 2020 to 2024. The longer I filmed, the more a metaphorical stage emerged — one that sheds light on my relationship with my hometown, along with the emotions and sense of destiny attached to it.’