A black screen. Four voices are heard. Two men are telling and repeating to two others that they are “welcome to the region”. Gradually, the situation becomes clearer: the filmmaker, Zhu Rikun, is on a shoot in Sichuan. His interest is in the lung diseases that plague the region’s workers, a health problem already present in his film Dust and which the Chinese State is trying to hush up. So here he is, invited to a brief interview with the local authorities, which is audio-recorded and played back in full in the film. A raw document that bares the methods of power: the insistence of the censors, their successive changes in strategy ranging from sugar-coated threats to the express demand that the images be destroyed, which only fuels the desire to bear witness even further.

Welcome

The film shows the ordinary lives of young people in China, with all their romantic problems, unfulfilled dreams and existential crises that are interwoven into everyday dialogues and conversations with the director. The two central protagonists try to function in an open relationship, which suits only one of the partners, while the other suffers and longs for a family life. The possibility of emigration to America is a hope, but it is gradually receding due to the worsening political situation. The camera captures even the most intimate moments and puts the viewer in the position of a voyeur observing the exposed bodies and souls.