Shen nu (The Goddess)

Silent film icon Ruan Lingyu delivers her greatest acting performance in this drama. She plays a sex worker from Shanghai who fights against societal prejudices to provide her son with an education. When she encounters a menacing gambler who tries to control her, she defends herself with moral ingenuity and iron determination. With her expressive body language, Ruan delivers a moving performance, while director Wu Yonggang’s extreme close-ups underscore his ability to portray emotional turmoil using the most subtle means. Ruan embodies the “New Woman” of Shanghai, who stood at the forefront of the struggle against repressive power structures in the hybrid Western-Chinese society of the 1930s. A classic of world cinema whose urgency and expressiveness resonate to this day, not least because of its modern visual language.