RETURN TO DUST (2022) @ Cleveland Cinematheque / Etna

On the edge of the Gobi desert, the families of an over-the-hill Chinese peasant and a disabled younger woman push the two into marriage. Despite their initial awkwardness, the newlyweds gradually evolve into a loving and cohesive couple. But the government’s urbanization plans threaten to upend their lives.

In the first two weeks after its release, Return to Dust was seen by 1.5 million Chinese viewers before the government pulled it from theaters and streaming services.

Click here for the trailer

“As a portrait of the dying end of a traditional way of life and the rapid decimation of China’s outlying rural communities, Return to Dust is potent, often poetic in its encroaching-dustbowl imagery. As a meditation on the rewards of later-life companionship, it is elegiac, blessed with two unusually sympathetic, restrained performances.” - Variety

“Return to Dust is many things — a vivid portrait of China’s hardscrabble rural north-west, an unexpected victim of state censorship — but it is first and last a love story.” - Financial Times

Rotten Tomatoes: 96%

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3:40 MOVIE at Cinematheque/Cleveland Institute of Art, 11610 Euclid Ave, Cleveland

Free parking in the lots with "Cinematheque" signs on E 117th Street (accessible only from Euclid).

AFTER THE MOVIE: EATS/DISCUSSION at Etna, 11919 Mayfield Road, a ten minute walk from the Cinematheque. On exiting the Cleveland Institute of Art, walk south (away from Euclid Ave) on 116th Street/Circle Drive to Mayfield Road. Turn left on Mayfield, and Etna is a little way up the hill on the left side of the street, just past the Rapid station, at the corner of 120th Street. Click here for the menu

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