Director

UFO IN HER EYES is Xiaolu Guo's second feature film, adapted from her own novel of the same name. Her first feature SHE, A CHINESE won the Golden Leopard for Best Film at the Locarno Film Festival. The story of a young Chinese woman who travels from a village to the city and then to the west for the freedom of her youth was praised for its authenticity and rock n'roll energy. The same year, Guo completed the documentary ONCE UPON A TIME PROLETARIAN, which premiered at the  Venice Film Festival, about people from different classes living in modern Chinese society and in conflict with time and history.

Xiaolu Guo was born in 1973 in a Chinese fishing village and comes from a family of sea lovers. Her grandfather was a fisherman, her father was sent to a labour camp in 60’s because he wanted to paint the sea instead of being a farmer. At 19 she left her hometown and studied at Beijing Film Academy. As a student, she was honored as “Best Screenwriter” at the 1998 National Filmwriter Prize for her script LOVE IN THE INTERNET AGE. After she received MA on cinema and literature, she moved to London in 2002 to continue her film studies. Her acclaimed documentaries include THE CONCRETE REVOLUTION (2004), about the construction boom in Beijing, which won the Special Jury Prize at the International Human Rights Film Festival in Paris; HOW IS YOUR FISH TODAY? (2006), about an unusual journey to a northern Chinese provincial town, which was presented at Sundance; and WE WENT TO WONDERLAND (2008), shot on a small digital still camera with video function, which was presented at MoMA New York's New Directors/New Films and at Rotterdam.

Xiaolu Guo is also a successful writer. Her 2007 novel "A CONCISE CHINESE-ENGLISH DICTIONARY FOR LOVERS" (Random House, UK and USA) has been published in more than 25 countries and will soon be made into a film by renowned director Wayne Wang. Other novels include "VILLAGE OF STONE," "20 FRAGMENTS OF A RAVENOUS YOUTH" and "UFO IN HER EYES".

In 2009 Xiaolu Guo founded “Metaphysical Cinema Syndicate” in London and Beijing, producing guerrilla style films to promote a free cinema beyond narrative conventions. 

SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY

Toronto International Film Felstival
Official Selection 2011
Shi Ke & Udo Kier in
a film by Xiaolu Guo
corazón international
Side Notice