Technicolour Noir: Diao Yinan's Black Coal, Thin Ice

In his Golden Bear–winning feature film, Diao Yinan takes on genre and tells the story of a washed-up detective who finds himself embroiled in a murder case. But by incorporating unexpected flourishes into its politically charged storyline, and by presenting China as a luminous landscape bathed in resplendent lights, the film is also a masterful embodiment of neo-noir, writes Anthony Carew.

Additional keywords: Berlinale, Berlin International Film Festival, Liao Fan, Gwei Lun, genre.