This Is Sanlitun

Located in Beijing’s bustling Chaoyang District, the Sanlitun area is home to the city’s ever-growing expatriate community due to its vibrant nightlife and proximity to various embassies, not to mention its luxury shopping center that constitutes a veritable retail wonderland for those who have secured big salaries through relocation to the Concrete Dragon. Sanlitun’s social scene is enjoyed as much by self-consciously fashionable Beijingers as it is by foreigners, although the circumstances behind its big screen breakthrough in the independent comedy This is Sanlitun are very much in keeping with its status as the city’s foremost ex-pat hangout. Icelandic director Róbert I. Douglas, who achieved early success at home with The Icelandic Dream (2000) and A Man Like Me (2002), has been living in Beijing for some years after seeing his local industry severely ruptured by the banking crash of 2008, thereby becoming familiar with the very haunts that crop up throughout his return to filmmaking. Rough around the edges due to its miniscule budget, This is Sanlitun makes a virtue of its technical shortcomings by employing the mockmumentary format to capture the dreams, schemes, and daily routines of Sanlitun’s residents while also serving as a caustic cautionary tale about pursuing opportunity in a booming economy without understanding its culture.

The focus of Douglas’ satire is Gary (Carlos Ottery), a broke Englishman who arrives in Beijing with ambitions of getting rich, winning back his Chinese ex-wife Lin (Ai Wan), and reconnecting with his young son Johnnie. Things do not go to plan as Lin is reluctant to let Gary back in her life in any capacity due to his track record of personal and professional failure, while a business meeting with a potential investor for his miracle grow hair product proves to be a disaster. However, the beleaguered entrepreneur does make a new friend in Frank (Christopher Loton), a self-proclaimed ‘China expert’ who offers ‘mentoring’ servi...