Factory flowers through the ages

Award-winning Chinese director Jia Zhangke, whose Still Life took the top prize at the 2006 Venice Film Festival, continues his exploration of how China's economic transformation is affecting ordinary people and their lives. Opening this weekend, Jia's latest 24 City is about the relocation of a 60-year-old state-owned aircraft factory - Factory 420 - and its workers, to the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu.

The old factory has to be sold to a real estate developer and 30,000 workers face being laid off. Nominated as the only Chinese movie to compete for the highest prize, the Golden Palm, at the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival, 24 City follows the lives of three women, representing three generations of the "factory flower" - the most attractive women in the factory - and five workers.

Mainland actress Lu Liping is a symbol of the 1950s, Joan Chen of the 1970s and Zhao Tao, of the post-80s generation. The director mixes documentary and fiction to tell how the factory changes from 1958 to 2008.