POSTMAN

Banned by Chinese authorities, POSTMAN is a stirring and compelling film about an aspect of Chinese life that doesn?t officially exist. Xian Dou is a postal employee incapable of truly living, and thus has been an observer his whole life. Shy and introverted, he is suddenly promoted from mailbox installer to mail deliverer for a district known promisingly as the ?Happiness Zone.? The old postman he replaced, he learns, was arrested for stealing mail and before long Xian Dou, too, finds himself reading the letters in his mailbag. Overwhelmed by the tragedies he encounters in these letters, he begins to intervene in the lives of the addressees. POSTMAN is a rich, elegant and honest film that explores the idea that people?s inner lives are beyond the reach of even the most rigorous state control. The film captures alienation of urban life, yet He Jianjun?s humanity never lets it turn cold. His strong and original voice in today?s Chinese cinema.