In Banpo town, rural China, in the mid 1990s, a woman’s body is found by the river. Ma Zhe, chief of the criminal police, heads up the murder investigation that quickly leads to an obvious arrest. As his superiors are keen to communicate their success, several clues push Ma Zhe to delve deeper into the hidden behaviour of local citizens.

Presented in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival.