Du Fu: China’s Greatest Poet

In China, poets have always been seen as the trusted chroniclers of the people’s hearts and the nation’s history, and for the Chinese, Du Fu is more than a poet, for generations he has been the guardian of the moral conscience of the nation. In this film, the first to ever be made about Du Fu in the west, Michael Wood follows his tracks by road, train and riverboat and traces his life through war and famine while Sir Ian McKellan reads the poetry.