Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
The Chinese director Liu Jie has brought Bao bei er (Baby) to the Official Section, a film that portrays the reality of the situation of handicapped children in his country. As Chinese tradition teaches that parents should look after their children so that the latter will then care for them in old age, 100,000 minors are abandoned each year.
The main character in the film is a young girl who was abandoned at birth because she suffered from VACTERL syndrome, but she manages to cope with the results of this appalling disease because she is taken in by a family, who the Government pays for her upkeep. On reaching the age of 18 she is forced to leave her foster mother despite wanting to stay and look after her. In the meantime, she comes across the case of a sick baby whose father refuses to provide her with treatment, and she will do all that she possibly can to save her life. The star of the film, Yang Mi, who plays the father, Guo Jinfei, and the director, Liu Jie, gave a press conference where the questions focused especially on the situation that disabled minors face in China.