One of the least understood major historical events of the last century is what is misleadingly called the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Why did Mao Zedong undertake to destroy much of the remaining pre-revolutionary aspects of China?

Was this an act of middle-age hooliganism from the Great Leader? Carma Hinton and Richard Gordon's magnificent film supplies answers to these questions.

Carma Hinton was herself a high school student in Beijing during the 1960s. Her father was an eminent sinologist, with unique access to Mao's regime. Now she has been able to find representatives of the generation who became Red Guards. The filmmakers have used the device of a lavish propaganda film illustrating the trance of Maoism to contrast the high-flown idealism of the Cultural Revolution with the sordid vandalism that was its consequence.

Most of the people who appear in the film have never talked before in public about their experiences. They were changed utterly by the quasi-religious experience of being followers of Mao. And they have neither forgotten what they did, nor in most instances got over it - they remain, often pathetically, a lost generation of Chinese, marooned in post-Maoist society.

I'd recommend this film not just as one of the best studies of Maoism but also as a strong contender, along with the works of Norma Percy and Brian Lapping, for the award of most significant documentary about contemporary history.