Neo-Lounge

Photographer Joanna Vasquez Arong, in her briskly edited feature-length debut shot over an extended period of time, follows the lives of regulars at the popular Beijing club Neo-Lounge. Its clientele are primarily foreigners from all corners of the globe who decided to spend part of their life in the vibrant Chinese metropolis. The main figure captured by the director's restless lens is the attractive Bulgarian girl Diliana who delights the clubbers with her songs during the endless parties, and vainly tries to get established as an actress. The shots and, above all, the quantity of excellent photographs, however, don't simply record the high-spirited and faintly decadent life of the city's foreign community, but also the character of a rapidly developing "new China", whose dark side harbours tens of thousands of people scraping a living far away from the glittering centre of Beijing. This visually pulsating film also reveals considerable insight, a sense of the comic side to life, and conveys the affable directness of its main characters. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)