Berlinale Adds Xu Zao’s ‘Light Pillar’ to Perspectives Section

The Berlin Film Festival has added Xu Zao’s animated film “Han ye deng zhu” (“Light Pillar”) to its Perspectives section for first-time features.

The Chinese production is set in the future, where “space travel is no longer a dream,” according to its official synopsis. “A lonely janitor tends the grounds of a dilapidated bankrupt film studio with only a former cat actor for company until he embarks on a romantic journey with a female player in a beautiful virtual world.” The Berlinale will mark its world premiere.

“Light Pillar” completes the Perspectives sidebar, which now consists of 14 feature film debuts. The selection also includes “Adolescence” star Ashley Walters’ drama “Animol,” Dara Van Dusen’s Western “A Prayer for the Dying” starring Johnny Flynn and John C. Reilly and the Israel-Germany co-production “Where To?” from Assaf Machnes. “Light Pillar” is the second animated feature slated to bow in the main programme of the Berlinale,…