Berlin favourite Wang returns to Competition with sweeping epic starring Zhang Fengyi, Zhang Yuqi and Wu Gang.

The Berlinale Competition today announced its final selection: Wang Quan’an’s White Deer Plain (Bai lu yuan), starring Zhang Fengyi, Zhang Yuqi and Wu Gang.

Wang’s epic, set towards the end of imperial China, charts the story of a young woman caught in a fierce struggle for land ownership between two rival families.

The epic is an adaptation of a historical novel of the same name by Chen Zhongshi, which was blacklisted for many years on account of its explicit sex scenes.

Director Wang won the Golden Bear in 2007 for Tuya’s Marriage and a Silver Bear in 2010 for Apart Together.

In total 18 films will be vying for the Golden and Silver Bears in the Berlinale Palast with 23 films showing in the Competition programme. There will also be two special screenings in the Berlinale Palast.