Dream Empire

Danish documentary on western China's real estate boom that involves a young, out-of-her-depth entrepreneur and the ‘rent-a-foreigner' industry.

"Chongqing's property surge attracts 24-year-old Yana with promises of wealth and privilege. She opens an agency to provide Chinese real estate developers with ‘white monkeys': foreigners who attend openings, dressed in costume, sometimes performing (badly). From the laughable ‘Britishville' to the world's largest aquarium complete with mermaids, it's all intended to demonstrate progress and prosperity, but tellingly most of the developments are empty. Yana struggles to reconcile this ruthless absurdity with her rural roots. Borenstein (a rent-a-foreigner himself) calls his film an insider's view and an outsider's perspective on "the biggest building boom in human history". Winner, top prize at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival." (Sydney Film Festival)

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