Mao’s Last Dancer

Based on Li Cunxin’s bestselling autobiography, this film adaptation traces the extraordinary journey of a boy born in rural China who went on to become an internationally renowned ballet star.

Raised during the years of Mao’s Cultural Revolution in small village in Shandong Province, Li Cunxin comes from a large family of field labourers. When government officials pluck the young Li from his provincial school, he is admitted to Madame Mao’s Dance Academy in Beijing where he undergoes arduous training. Here, Li is enticed by the clandestine tutelage of a teacher named Chan, whose sympathies with Russian classical ballet put him at odds with Maoist principles.

Screening as part of ‘Bruce Beresford Directs‘