

"Before you can fly, you have to be free."
At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao's cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he falls in love with an American woman. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet.
Director: Bruce Beresford
Writers: Jan Sardi

Bruce Greenwood
Ben Stevenson

Kyle MacLachlan
Charles Foster

Joan Chen
Niang

Chi Cao
Li Cunxin - adult

Amanda Schull
Elizabeth Mackey

Wang Shuangbao
Dia

Aden Young
Dilworth

Jack Thompson
Judge Woodrow Seals

Penne Hackforth-Jones
Cynthia Dodds

Chengwu Guo
Li Cunxin - teenage

Wen Bin Huang
Li Cunxin - boy

Madeleine Eastoe
Lori

Camilla Vergotis
Mary McKendry

Steven Heathcote
Bobby Cordner

Kip Gamblin
David

Christopher Kirby
Mason

Suzie Steen
Betty Lou

Yang Li
Cunmao - 19 yrs

Ferdinand Hoang
Consul Zhang

Xiguo Wu
Director Wang