Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise (Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress)

China in the seventies. Luo and Ma, both sons of intellectuals, are sent to a re-education camp in a faraway village in the mountains near Tibet. One day, they meet the Old Tailor and his beautiful granddaughter. Luo falls in love with her. She tells the two adolescents that another young intellectual hides a suitcase full of books under his bed. These books by foreign authors are considered to be subversive and are therefore strictly forbidden. Night after night, Luo and Ma tell the stories they have read - and adapted to the revolutionary principles - to the villagers. The Little Seamstress is particularly fond of Balzac. Slowly she realises that being free is the most important goal in life: free to live, free to think, free to dream, free to love. She becomes Lou’s mistress. But the situation grows more and more dangerous …