A bus overturns in the Gobi Desert, not because of the wind, but because of a pack of stray dogs crossing the road. This is how Black Dog begins, a film that immediately conjures up an elusive, hallucinatory world. Amidst the dust and silence arrives Lang, an ex-convict stuntman who has returned silently to his hometown, where industry is leaving and factories are already rising again.  

What follows is a rare and precise blend of absurdity, melancholy and tender connection – especially with the black whippet that Lang encounters at an unexpected moment. Director Guan Hu weaves classic motifs – the wandering hero, the prodigal son – through a visually overwhelming landscape of economic decline and resigned survival.  

Awarded the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes and the Palm Dog for the dog performance of the year, Black Dog is both a social portrait and a loving, dryly comical duet between man and animal. Abrasive, disarming and deeply moving.