A Marble Travelogue

A Marble Travelogue recounts the striking odyssey of the marble route between Greece and China. This trade begins in a Peloponnese quarry and continues in Quyang, the Chinese sculpture capital. Blocks are transformed there into columns, statues and other decorations replicating the works of Greek classicism with made-in-China know-how. The smaller rocks are used to make souvenirs that go back to Europe to be sold to tourists and sometimes even return to China, brought by Chinese tourists back from their holidays. In the company of protagonists of the marble business – including a pair of unforgettable twins, who speak Chinese and work as cultural ambassadors between the two countries – the director Sean Wang has found an original way to describe a little-known economic chain. With a cheerful visual style and an astute, humorous perspective, the director becomes a witness to a capitalist circuit imbued with absurdity, in which the search for authenticity and tradition are but a distant memory.

Alice Riva