If Chinese civilization is a testament to anything, it’s time. With over 5,000 years under its belt, taking an hour and a half to explore the minutiae of the inner lives of a modern day working class Beijing family would seem no more than a very small grain of sand falling through a very large hourglass. But the funny thing about time is that our perception of it can be manipulated.

In Oxhide, director Liu Jiayin stretches time so effectively that you can feel the weight of years on the shoulders of a leather handbag maker, his wife and their teenage daughter Beibei, played by the director and her parents.

The film, and its recently released sequel Oxhide II , take place entirely inside their dark, dreary and modest home, where we watch the three eat, sit around, wash dishes, discuss ways to increase Beibei’s height, and the state of the family’s failing business. The camera angles are tight and stationary. Much of the time we only hear the action in the background as we wait for some part of the character’s body to reappear. The restricted view of the lens and lack of action frustrate enough that when something important does happen, it feels like a revelation. It might be fiction, but it looks and feels like documentary.

When Oxhide was released in 2005, art house critics dubbed Liu a genius, and her sequel rode these waves of critical acclaim straight to a 2009 debut at Cannes. Whether or not Oxhide II will live up to its sister’s reputation remains to be seen, but Dgenerate Films dubbed the first as one of the top 10 Chinese films of the last decade, making it a must for any fan of Chinese cinema. Laura Fitch

Watch Oxhide (牛皮) and other Chinese films with English subtitles on www.dgeneratefilms.com.

See excerpts from an interview with Liu Jiayin about Oxhide 2 here.