Return to DustPG
In rural China, two middle-aged singletons are cast off by their families and forced into an arranged marriage. What seems at first like an odd and doomed relationship gradually blossoms into a tender companionship as they both build a home together. While navigating topics such as the exploitation of farm workers and forced urbanisation, Li Ruijun’s hypnotic drama is also a poetic and humane portrait of unlikely love.
Reviews
‘It’s a gorgeous, quietly affecting film that finds an unassuming beauty in this simple life in rural China, but which doesn’t shy away from the extreme hardships faced by the very poorest.’
★★★★
Wendy Ide, The Observer
‘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.’
★★★★
Danny Leigh, The FT
Sorry - you missed it!
We showed Return to Dust between November 25, 2022 and December 1, 2022.
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What else is on?
Today (Monday 6th May)
17:45
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife... 18
2h 4m20:30
Monkey Man 18
Tomorrow (Tuesday 7th May)
18:30
The Teachers' Lounge 12A
1h 39m | German w/ English subtitles20:45
The Sweet East 18
1h 44mPlan your visit
Our beautiful art deco inspired auditorium can be found just off East Oxford's Cowley Road. We are open 7 days a week. We open the cinema and box office 30 minutes before the scheduled start time of each film, and the Box Office then closes 10 minutes after the film starts. We don’t show adverts, just a couple of trailers, so don't be late as the film itself starts very close to the advertised time!