Petition (film)

Petition (Chinese: 上访; pinyin: shàngfǎng) is a documentary released in 2009 by Chinese independent filmmaker Zhao Liang. The film was screened as a Special Screening of the official selection of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.[1]

Over the course of 12 years (1996-2008), director Zhao Liang follows the "petitioners", who travel from all over China to the nation's capital, Beijing, to make complaints about injustices committed by authorities in their home towns and villages. Most petitioners wait for months or years for their grievances to be heard, while they live in makeshift shelters around the southern railway station of Beijing. All types of cases are represented: mothers of abused young soldiers, farmers thrown off their land, workers from demolished factories, and more. The documentary explores the Sisyphean lives of the petitioners as they contend with the authorities and their own families in their struggle for restitution and survival. At times it was filmed with hidden cameras smuggled into government offices.