World’s Best Movies: Mao’s Last Dancer

Closing June’s instalment of World’s Best Movies is Mao’s Last Dancer (2009), a film based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin. Portrayed by Birmingham Royal Ballet Principal Dancer Chi Cao, the story tells of eleven year old Cunxin being plucked from a poor Chinese village to study ballet in Beijing. Years later, he travels to America in a cultural exchange program, where he falls in love with dancer Elizabeth Mackey while pursuing his dreams to become a ballet dancer and artist.