A Self-Portrait is the story of the art teacher Qiu Sha, told in photos and the words of Qiu Sha, about his youth, the changes in his family and in society. Director He Yi: 'What I remember now is the material that I came to mind of a man who has lived through the different eras in China. From all this material I not only read the history of a man and his family, I also learned something about the demands placed on life in a society over several decades.

Set against the backdrop of the contemporary black market for pirated DVDs in Beijing, Pirated Copy is a character-driven drama about the passion two couples have for each other and for film.

He Jianjun follows fishermen on the banks of the Yellow River in the Shanxi Province. Partly in documentary form, partly as fiction, River People shows traditional life as it passes the generations, calm and irreversible as the river itself, apparently unaffected by economic changes in the city. People live without medical care, social provisions, without tax. It's about the cousins and best friends Baowa and Laba (who sometimes tell the story). An old uncle, who taught everyone the craft, is afraid of the outside world because so many relatives have been so unfortunate there. He doesn't want to think about leaving and has forbidden Baowa, the only one to go to school, ever to mention it. But for the young man, a boat looks like a coffin. When Laba's parents buy a bigger boat, the brothers are faced with an inevitable choice. River People is the story of people who are happy with their lives, but slowly see the modern era creep in.

Xiao Dou is a shy and naive mailworker living in Beijing with his sister. When a coworker is fired for reading people's correspondences Xiao Dou takes over the same mail route. He soon finds himself indulging in the same curiosity, eventually developing an obsession. Xiao Dou chooses to spend time reading letters instead of socializing with friends or coworkers. As he becomes increasingly tied to the letters, he begins to intervene in the lives of those who write and receive the letters.

Set against the backdrop of the contemporary black market for pirated DVDs in Beijing, Pirated Copy is a character-driven drama about the passion two couples have for each other and for film.

A woman who accidentally commits a hit-and-run has mysterious connections to the victim.

A woman who accidentally commits a hit-and-run has mysterious connections to the victim.

Jingshen works as a nurse in a psychiatric hospital. At first he experiences the world as complete chaos, but slowly he gets used to the behavior of the patients, and he takes part in their recreational activities. One day, young Jiyun is brought in. There is a severe shortage of space, so her bed is put in the cellar and Jingshen is told to keep an eye on her. He becomes intrigued by her and her dreams, tries to find out what precisely is wrong with her and above all what secrets are hidden by that recurring dream of the red beads...

A young and ambitious lawyer who has just graduated starts his own office and is ready to conquer the world. One night a female taxi-driver comes into his offic, tells him she has been raped and wants him to track down the rapist. He is not just excited about his first 'case', he also becomes intrigued by the woman who describes the details of her rape. Looking for the culprit, he hears the same thing everywhere: 'I have seen him, he just left'. In the meantime, the lawyer regularly visits the barber's shop over the road where he feels attracted to the fresh natural beauty of the hairdresser. Then one evening he is invited round to the taxi driver's home and sees for the first time her 'true' face...

An unschooled young man, one of the countless victims of Mao's Cultural Revolution, is laboring in the countryside when he is assigned to teach in a nearby school. Gradually, he abandons the Maoist textbook and encourages the barely literate kids to write about their own lives and feelings.