Fascinating and rich with wry humor, Exile Shanghai is an extraordinary cultural odyssey that affectionately conjures up the lost Jewish world of Shanghai. In the dark days of the 1930s, the Chinese metropolis was the last refuge for Europe's persecuted Jews-a place that did not demand a visa. Those who managed to find refuge there brought with them the social and gastronomic delights of Vienna and Berlin-to this day, Shanghai is the only Chinese city to boast western-style bakeries. Ulrike Ottinger's four-and-one-half-hour mosaic interviews former members of the Shanghai expatriate Jewish community (now mostly in San Francisco!), and her ever curious camera cruises the city in search of its lost synagogues, schools, and salons.