Ma Zhe is a detective in rural China. When a woman’s body is discovered by the river, he is pressured into making a quick arrest. Though the case is closed, he’s troubled, and his personal investigation drives him to the edge of his own sanity.

In quiet Banpo Town, Ma Zhe is a detective who’s admired for his successes. But he’s a troubled soul–troubled by his unborn son, troubled by the grind, troubled by the swift resolution of a murder he knows is truly unsolved. And this investigation has ripped the veneer off of a town he thought he knew. As he pursues leads, the more he uncovers, the more he becomes unraveled. Wei Shujun’s dark and moody noir is at once a throwback to vintage crime films as it is a modern look at Xi Jinping’s China.

Content advisory: violence