Originally premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival in the U. S. Documentary Competition
"The Exiles" is directed by Violet Columbus and Ben Klein and it's about Documentarian Christine Choy who decides to track down three exiled dissidents from the Tiananmen Square massacre, in order to find closure on an abandoned film she began shooting in 1989. Including interviews with filmmaker Todd Phillips and political commentator Wu'erkaixi. This documentary is really interesting about the political situation that happened with China back during the Tiananmen Square situation and how the situation has effected certain individuals. Throughout this documentary, Christine Choy is a very strange but funny character and it is really interesting to listen to her speak throughout this documentary. The presentation is really good with good effects, some good animation provided, good sound design, and good music provided throughout the movie.
There are some many interesting conversations provided by the participants. The tone goes from sometimes comedic and sometimes depressing at the same time. Directors Columbus and Klein does a really good job capturing the roles and communicating with it's participants to feel real and living. Politics isn't something that I am good at talking because it's a subject I don't often feel comfortable talking about. As an Chinese-American, it's still interesting to learn about many aspects of China even if it's controversial. I may not agree with everything about what is going on with China and the other states being involved, but there's still a lot of interesting discussions provided.
I am surprised that I didn't see this at the festival when I attended it back in January.
Rating: A-
