Dead Pigs, 2018(Film still)
As Cathy Yan’s first feature film is released on MUBI, the director speaks to Kat Haylett about making and meaning of the movie
February 10, 2021
In the spring of 2013, over 16,000 dead pigs were found floating in the Huangpu River in Shanghai. Quickly, this became a national – and then global – news story due to the bizarre nature of the incident – which was attributed to the growing reluctance of farmers to cover the rising cost of burying livestock. A few years later, this strange event served as the basis for director Cathy Yan’s first feature film,
Dead Pigs (released on MUBI on 12 February). It sets the tone for a story that has many surreal and darkly humorous elements, which Yan thinks “feel real to life – that we always find humour even in the darkest moments.”