A poster for the Chinese film "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" beckons passers-by outside a cinema in Berlin. Based on the novel of the same title, the film was directed by Chinese writer Dai Sijie, who has lived in France since 1984. Starring several of the hottest stars on the Chinese mainland - actress Zhou Xun and actors Liu Ye and Chen Kun - the film has won a Golden Globe nomination for best foreign language film. The sentimental story of two teenage boys and the young seamstress they both love is set in a remote mountainous village in the 1970s during the "cultural revolution."

(China Daily 12/31/2003 page1)