24 City

24 City (二十四城记, 2008) is a Chinese docudrama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Jia Zhangke. Factory 420 in Chengdu — a state-run aeronautics plant that ran for decades — is being demolished. What replaces it: a luxury apartment development named 24 City.

Jia Zhangke does something precise with this demolition. He interviews former workers who gave their working lives to the plant, then intercuts their testimonies with staged scenes performed by actors including Joan Chen and Zhao Tao. The film never labels which is which. The result is a portrait of industrial China's erasure — what a country forgets when it decides to move on, and who ends up living in the building that replaces what they built. The film competed at Cannes 2008. Stream 24 City online on iFILM.