“Art Break-in”, a Chinese-language documentary produced by Maltese filmmaker Clifford Borg-Marks, was recently released online on popular Chinese website youku.com and has become an internet sensation, particularly among Chinese art students.

The film was directed by Yang Lihua, a native of Shandong province and graduate of the Xie Jin Film Institute in Shanghai.

In the brief time since its release, the film has attracted almost 67,000 viewers and hundreds of comments from artists, art students and graduates of fine art colleges across China criticizing the rigidity of the university entrance examination system or simply reminiscing about their student days.

Set to the music of Chinese rock band Cold Blooded Animals, “Art Break-in” takes viewers into the bleak lives of a group of young Chinese students preparing for the annual entrance exams for the Central Fine Arts Academy in Beijing and other leading fine arts institutions.

The background is the gritty and grim cityscape of present-day China. The microcosm of anxiety and hope in the coastal province of Shandong is replayed thousands of times over across China during the spring scramble for a university place. Millions of students compete for a few thousand places.

The frantic and grueling preparation of the group of four young friends is rendered all the more heartbreaking by the sacrifices made by their parents. This film gives an uncensored look into the lives of these young people. The nonchalance of the four aspiring artists towards the camera recording their lives is breathtaking. The viewers are forced to become the fly on the wall, a filmmaker’s dream, by the dogged focus of the students to obtain the prize of a university place.

“Art Break-in” gives viewers a glimpse of the intense pressure that China’s youth submit to. It recently had its Hong Kong premiere at a screening held at 2P Contemporary Art Gallery under the auspices of Diorama Projections.

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTczMjI0OTAw.html

http://www.dioramaprojects.org/diorama-projections-schedule/