Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case

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93%

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Total Count: 27

68%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 267
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Movie Info

After 81 days of solitary detention world famous Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is put under house arrest. He suffers from sleeping disorder and memory loss, 18 cameras are monitoring his studio and home, police agents follow his every move, and heavy restrictions from the Kafkaesque Chinese authorities weigh him down. Picking up where Alison Klayman's Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry left off, AI WEIWEI THE FAKE CASE is more explicitly political, reflecting Ai's battle against the gigantic lawsuit thrust upon him by the Chinese government in an effort to silence him. Ai Weiwei is shaken, but during his year on probation he steadily finds new ways to provoke and challenge the mighty powers of the Chinese authorities in his fight for human rights and free expression. The film also features the creation of S.A.C.R.E.D., a new work depicting Ai's time in prison, which premiered during the Venice Biennale. (C) International Film Circuit

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Cast

Ai Weiwei
Ai Lao II
Wang Feng
Gao Ying II
Jerome A. Cohen
Larry Warsh
He Yunchang
He Yunchang III
Li Zhanyang III
Angus Walker
Silke Ballweg
Jeremy Wingfield
Xiao Pang
Zhiqiang Pu
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Critic Reviews for Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case

All Critics (27) | Top Critics (13)

  • Ai granted Johnsen significant access to his personal and professional lives following his release, including his tender interactions with his young son, and the film's intimate nature recalls the verite style of Ai's own video work.

    Jun 19, 2014 | Full Review…

    Drew Hunt

    Chicago Reader
    Top Critic

  • Remarkably intimate and astute.

    Jun 5, 2014 | Full Review…

    Sheri Linden

    Los Angeles Times
    Top Critic

  • Although expertly edited, Johnsen's film, whose soundtrack ends with Nina Simone's "Feeling Good," presents a less effective portrait of Ai than Klayman's does.

    May 29, 2014 | Rating: 2/4 | Full Review…

    Kenneth Baker

    San Francisco Chronicle
    Top Critic

  • The film quietly and slowly reveals a man struggling internally to find the right response to the restrictions imposed on him and determining that to stop speaking out would itself be a kind of death.

    May 23, 2014 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

    Kate Taylor

    Globe and Mail
    Top Critic

  • Johnsen intimately chronicles the fascinating push-pull of Ai's daily existence: the man he truly is now contrasted with the man he hopes to become once again.

    May 16, 2014 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

    Christy Lemire

    RogerEbert.com
    Top Critic

  • "If I don't share my voice," he says, "then I am dead already." It sounds almost like a dare.

    May 15, 2014 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

    Murray Whyte

    Toronto Star
    Top Critic
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Audience Reviews for Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case

  • Jul 23, 2014
    A peek at the life of Chinese artist and political dissident Ai Weiwei as he sits under unofficial house arrest awaiting a verdict on (likely fabricated) charges of tax evasion. This is an important document of a man who refuses to be bullied (and there's no bigger bully in the world than the Chinese government), so it's unfortunate that much of this day-to-day footage is mundane and assembled in such a way that the drama of the situation gets lost.
    Greg S Super Reviewer
  • Jun 06, 2014
    After he is released on bail and probation after being detained on charges of tax evasion, the dissident, renegade and gadly artist Ai Weiwei is told by his mother that if this had been happening in the 50's, the Chinese authorities would have simply had him shot. Instead, the authorities go for the death of a thousand cuts, removing his presence from the local interenet, as it is also remarked how much weight Ai Weiwei lost while in prison. But this different approach has less to do with how the Chinese government might have mellowed over the decades, than as to how the world has changed with almost everybody having a camera, thus making it that much harder for a government to disappear a promiment personality totally from view. Luckily, at least one of those cameras belongs to a camera crew which is where this documentary comes in, circumventing the rule against his giving interviews. Otherwise, Ai Weiwei continues to not only make the work of the Chinese government public but also against their liking simple nudity to pornography which is not only the custom there, as he also puts out his rotund form to make his point. To his credit, he is less interested in power than in inspring others which is where a spectacular flight of paper airplanes comes into play. All the while, he maintains an apartment tantalizingly across the street from the American embassy where a parachute would definitely come in handy.
    Walter M Super Reviewer
  • Apr 24, 2014
    We return to Ai Weiwei after his detention by Chinese authorities. After an initial silence, truths bubble to the surface as a true rebel emerges in all his glory.
    John B Super Reviewer
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