As a novelist, Hu Bo went by the pseudonym Hu Qian and published his first collection of short stories titled Huge Crack (2017), which contains the short story that he later adapted for his only feature film, An Elephant Sitting Still (2018). In an interview about his publication, Hu addressed a question about the stifling undertones of his work with a fine point of contention: ‘The truly valuable things lie in the cracks of the world, and not pessimistically so. If [you] can understand this, [you] may just be awed by the orders of life.’

This compilation of short films, made around the time when Hu Bo was a fresh graduate of the Beijing Film Academy, traces the vast, sombre, and at times surreal terrains of the human condition through Hu’s singular perspective. Often collaborating with fellow Academy graduate Fan Chao, these films depict desperate characters in muted distress, all while retaining a distilled sense of humanity, humour, and, ultimately, possibility. Presented chronologically by the year of production, the films demonstrate the fertile and productive beginnings of a prodigious mind whose search for self and voice was woefully cut short.

To Cordoba

Hu Bo | 2012 | Digital | Colour | Mandarin and Spanish with Chinese and English subtitles | 23 min.

Made when Hu was a student at the Beijing Film Academy, this short follows the journey of a middle-aged man as he boards a train whose destination, according to a young passenger, can be mutable.

Night Runner

Hu Bo | 2014 | Digital | Colour | Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles | 27 min.

Hu Bo’s graduation film is the young director’s take on the man-on-the-run genre, following a sickly and down-and-out man on what could be his worst—or best—night ever.

Distant Father

Fan Chao, Hu Bo (uncredited) | 2014 | Digital | Colour | Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles | 23 min.

Reminiscent of a twist on Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, this collaboration between Hu Bo and Fan Chao depicts two ex-inmates as they venture out from the middle of nowhere in search of an elusive opportunity to get to a talent show.

Man in the Well

Hu Bo | 2017 | Digital | Black and white | Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles | 16 min.

Produced when he was participating in a film workshop led by Hungarian master filmmaker Béla Tarr at the FIRST International Film Festival in Xining, China, Hu Bo’s last short film—about two starving children finding a corpse—is a monochromatic symphonic poem about life, death, and survival.

Hu Bo (1988–2017, Shandong) was a novelist, director, and screenwriter. In 2014, after graduating from the Beijing Film Academy with a degree in film directing, he started to write novels under the pen name Hu Qian. On 12 October 2017, he died by suicide at the age of 29. In 2018, his first and only film An Elephant Sitting Still won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlin Film Festival, as well as Best Narrative Feature and Best Adapted Screenplay at the Golden Horse Awards.

Fan Chao is a filmmaker and a cinematographer. A graduate of the Beijing Film Academy, he was a close collaborator with Hu Bo on several short films as well as Hu’s only feature-length film, An Elephant Sitting Still (2018). He has worked as a cinematographer for films by directors such as Zhang Meng, Dong Chengpeng, and Xu Lei.