Never Trust a Documentary

There is a 1996 documentary by Isabelle Roumeguère about the yáodòng, 窑洞, 窯洞, in the Shǎnxī, 陕西, province of Northern China - Le peuple des cavernes. A yaodong is a dugout in the mountains used as dwelling. The word means "oven cave". The program is about the construction of a new yaodong.

What is striking is how exotic it all seems compared to Europe. Especially, as it is not exotic. Like in other documentaries, the cameras carefully avoid everything that looks normal and zooms in on anything that looks exotic. In some of the dialogues the people talk like bad actors. This may be partly because they are too conscious about the camera. But in some cases it is clear that the scene is staged, and that they are told what to say.

And yet it is a both interesting and entertaining program.