LATE AT NIGHT
voices of ordinary madness
International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2014
Strong, original film essay on the changing East End of London. A model for Europe and the rest of the world. Author and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo has been attracting attention since How Is Your Fish Today? (Tiger Awards Competition 2007).
A playful, original and biting study of the underbelly of British society concentrated in the frenetic East End of London, an area of the city that has changed completely as a result of uneven economic developments; a few are profiting while most are not. Even though it has remained a multicultural and multi-ethnic neighbourhood, a completely new business centre has emerged, forcing many people to leave the East End.
The film has the form of an experimental television programme introducing people who are very different, from street-gang members to bankers. Xiaolu Guo, who once settled in this part of London as an immigrant, focuses on this small part of England so she can say something about the entire capitalist world - a world that is controlled by economic inequality. It's with reason that people in England regard Late at Night - Voices of Ordinary Madness as a real protest film.