Sunday, May 4, 4:00 p.m. | One of the most acclaimed documentaries of the year and winner of nearly a dozen festival awards, this deeply fascinating family portrait follows the emotional journey of Mrs. Li, an upper-middle-class Chinese woman who learns her husband is having an affair. Desperate to save her marriage, Mrs. Li hires a “mistress dispeller” —a crafty young female professional named Wang Zhenxi—to repair her love life. Unfolding in almost real time, MISTRESS DISPELLER follows “Teacher” Wang as she clandestinely befriends both the cheating husband and the mistress, all part of her intricate master plan to restore the family’s equilibrium. “A spellbindingly intimate tale” (POV Magazine), this exquisitely photographed docu-drama is “a profound and searching panorama of loneliness and partnership,” (IndieWire) and a “highly effective [and] delicately realized examination of marriage in modern China (Screen Daily).
Doc10, now in its 10th year, screens 10 of the best documentaries of the year, giving Chicago audiences the first—and often only—opportunity to see these extraordinary films on the big screen. Post-screening conversations will follow all showtimes. Learn more and get tickets at doc10.org.
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu