Sunday in Peking

Beijing, 1955. A traveler’s tribulations, furnished with picture books, childlike dreams, and journeys into the worlds of Jules Verne and Marco Polo. Marker wanders, spinning poetry, unmatched in mind, humour or affection. He captures the faces of children, rolling fog that gives the impression that the entire city has just come out of the bath, horse-drawn carriages blending with signs of modernity. Sunday in Peking is the story of China eager to show itself to the world, the Communist dream as yet untarnished, the grandiose idea of a completely different civilization that has rejected capitalism despite being built on centuries of imperialism.

With his undeniable skill as an observer, like a wily and curious alleycat, Marker brings us a clutch of treasures: colours, textures, indecipherable signs, mysteries that feed into the dreamlike atmosphere, and vignettes captured in real time. From the police officer politely directing traffic to children clamouring for a picture book written for little Parisians, Marker brings us a portrait of a China as it modernizes and a portal into history in the making.

Sunday in Peking provides a window into the palpable enthusiasm felt throughout the world at the sight of a rising Communist China. Alas, history has since revealed the breadth of atrocities awaiting those then-hopeful faces…

Naomie Décarie-Daigneault
Tënk's Artistic Director