In his debut feature film, Xú Zǎo uses animation and live action to invert our expectations about dreams and reality. An introspective examination of the alienation of modern life, Light Pillar tells the story of Lǎo Zhā, a lonely janitor at the failing Old New East West Film Studio. His world is depicted in serene animation that encompasses both the dullness of his job with the promise of exploring the universe with the much-hyped tourist Light Pillar Space Travel Program. Set in winter—a winter of discontent for both him and the studio— Zhā drifts through the detritus of a defunct era of filmmaking with only the company of his cool, sweet cat He Bao, a former award-winning actor.
This graveyard of dreams mixes the ridiculous and sublime: the Acropolis is next to the Great Sphinx of Giza, which houses the staff lounge, and the studio owner lives in the throne room of the Forbidden City, sharing space with a lighthouse and beached ship. Within this land of illusions, Zhā leads an isolated life, and when the owner gives him a VR game (called Home Sweet Home) in lieu of payment, he is quickly drawn into its radiant, nostalgic, and entirely exploitative world, ironically filmed as live action. Drawn into an elusive romantic courtship, he undergoes an unexpected transformation, which is mirrored by the surprising future of the Film Studio.
Born in Anshan, China in 1991, filmmaker and screenwriter XÚ ZǍO studied at the Beijing Film Academy and worked on production design before directing three animated films in the past few years. A story about a post-graduate musician struggling to find work, No Changes Have Taken in Our Life (Hái nèi yàng) premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2023 and won a Golden Dove at DOK Leipzig. Love Music Friend (Xīn de shēng huó), the tale of a pianist, a wolfhound, and the power of music and love, screened at the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2025. His feature film debut, the poignant and pensive Light Pillar, premiered at the Berlinale earlier this year.
Jennifer Barker