Since his debut in 2007, Li Ruijun has been favored by film festivals for his strong authorship. The previous five feature films "Summer Solstice", "Old Donkey's Head", "Tell Them, I Went by White Crane", "Home in a Place with Abundant Water and Grass" and "Passing the Future" take his hometown of Zhangye in the Hexi Corridor of Gansu Province as the starting point, and in the video stories of northwestern people leaving their hometowns, staying in their hometowns, and searching for their hometowns, they imitate the emotional symptoms of the current northwest countryside.
Li Ruijun's new film "Hidden in the Dust" was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the 72nd Berlin Film Festival, and will be released on February 25, Chinese mainland
The land is the intuitive clue to connect the image, but the land must be connected with people, must be present through talents, never an inorganic stage curtain, and only provide the most basic support for the story. And when the camera faces Beijing ("Summer Solstice"), faces Shenzhen ("Passing the Future"), at the moment when it is difficult to find loess on the screen, the land abstractly announces its presence and absence through the connection between people.
The final poster of "Hidden in the Dust and Smoke" was designed by Huang Hai
As Li Ruijun's first film to be shortlisted for the main competition of the three major European film festivals, "Hidden in the Dust" does not look like a masterpiece that encompasses everything in the northwest. For the first time, cutting into the love story of two middle-aged people who stayed behind in their homeland, "Hidden in the Dust" is not only adding to the "Northwest Universe" of the plump Li Ruijun, but also subtracting the essence of "Northwest Life" for the audience with extremely simple aspects and extremely pure emotions. However, instead of committing to condensing the northwest case of native China and getting lost in some kind of highly generalized "northwestern nature", it is advisable to try to understand li Ruijun as a creator and how to be a fellow countryman in his works in the words of director Li Ruijun.
M.C. "Hidden in the Dust" was shortlisted for the main competition of the Berlin Film Festival for the first time, is there any different experience compared to participating in the previous film festivals?
Li Ruijun: Because of the epidemic, it was more troublesome to communicate with the Berlin side, and we could not reach the scene. In fact, we have intersected with the Berlinale twice before. The first time was in 2010, "Old Donkey's Head" was shortlisted for the Youth Forum, but because the film was later supported by the Rotterdam Film Festival HBF Venture Capital Foundation, it chose Rotterdam for the premiere, giving up the invitation to Berlin. The second time was in 2015, when the European premiere of "Home in a Lush Place of Water and Grass" was also at the Berlin Film Festival. This year's "Hidden in the Dust" is the third time to be selected, and unlike in the past, this time it was selected in the main competition unit, but unfortunately we could not reach the scene, so we could not feel the new atmosphere, but we have been busy with the later stages of the film.
M.C. We noticed that your first two films, Home in a Lush Place of Water and Grass, and Passing through the Future, were basically released in China after a year at international film festivals. But this time, "Hidden in the Dust" is closely followed by the Berlin Film Festival and has been scheduled to be released in China on February 25 this year. What are your expectations for the film's response at film festivals and in China?
Li Ruijun: Because "Hidden in the Dust" is a small-cost literary and art film, there is not much cost in publicity. The opportunity to pass the film festival may make more people know about the film, so the colleagues who distributed it felt that this schedule was suitable. Because in fact, such a film is placed in the same period. For other aspects, I don't really expect much, but I hope that the audience who like this type of film will have the opportunity to see it in the theater, so I am already very happy.
M.C. Your creations have always been based on your hometown of Gansu. In your sequence of works, we see two aspects. One such as your Virgo "Summer Solstice" and the previous "Passing the Future" both look at the city, especially the foreigners in the first-tier cities, and the other is oriented to the countryside itself. "Hidden in the Dust" returns to the countryside, but we also see some new attempts. Do you think your new film is a comeback?
Li Ruijun: Yes, "Summer Solstice" and "Passing through the Future" are a bit similar, they are all partly filmed in the countryside and partly filmed in the city. For example, "Passing through the Future" is to shoot those who leave the village to work outside, and their situation of surviving in the city after they are older is still related to this land, but the space has changed. "Hidden in the Dust" is actually a very early idea. For me, there is no return or plan in the strict sense, there are several scripts in the brain that have been perfected, and which one is perfected first, we will shoot first.
M.C. Unlike the previous focus on the elderly and children left behind in the homeland, this is your first movie featuring middle-aged people, and it is also the first romance film, can you say that? Why did you choose such a perspective this time?
Li Ruijun: "Hidden in the Dust" is the story of two middle-aged people who can't go out. Because those who can go out have gone to the city to work, like "Passing the Future" is the story of middle-aged people who go out. As for romance films, in fact, there are also elements of love in "Passing the Future", but "Hidden in the Dust" is more about how two people know each other, know each other, love each other, and keep each other in a special environment, which is completely a film with "emotion" as the main body, which is different from my previous films. Because the story itself has reasons to be told and remembered, there are parts that move me, and I hope to share this story with the audience.
M.C. Also in the choice of actors, for the first time, you use the way of professional actors (Haiqing) and ordinary actors (Wu Renlin) starring. How did you choose and balance these two actors?
Li Ruijun: My previous films are more non-professional actors, "Passing the Future" is because the film story itself takes place in the city, and the roles are also some young people who have left their hometowns to work, and from the perspective of setting or Mandarin lines, they chose young professional actors. The character setting of "Hidden in the Dust" is two middle-aged people working in the village, although it is the story of ordinary people, but it needs more delicate emotional expression.
Li Ruijun: Teacher Haiqing and I have known each other for many years, and she has always hoped to have the opportunity to cooperate. After the completion of this script, because the age of the characters was appropriate, I showed it to Mr. Haiqing. She said she loves the script and the characters and is interested in participating. We also considered hiring a professional actor at the beginning, but the actor's schedule is a big problem. "Hidden in the Dust" needs to be filmed in five parts, the shooting cycle runs through all year rounds, and the actors also have to experience life, such as the male protagonist in the film has a lot of physical labor, which is a great challenge for professional actors. So after communicating with professional actors without success, we decided to choose Wu Renlin, who had played supporting roles in my films many times before, in fact, my uncle, as the male lead. This new arrangement also allows Haiqing teacher to move closer to the direction of the vegetarian, and my uncle to the direction of professional actors, to learn to shape the role, so as to form a cross, and complete these roles together. For me, choosing the right actor for the script is the most important thing, and I haven't thought much about the rest.
M.C. The local Dialect of Chinese (Lanyin Mandarin) or minority languages in Gansu has always been an organic ingredient in your films. We only heard a few short lines from Haiqing in the trailer for "Hidden in the Dust". Do you find it difficult to train out-of-town actors in their voice intonation?
Li Ruijun: Teacher Haiqing spent a long time to integrate into the villagers, first to understand their language. We will also translate the lines into dialects, mark the pinyin, and break the sentences one by one according to the way the locals break the sentences. I would record the lines in Mandarin and dialect, and Mr. Haiqing put these recordings on his mobile phone and took them out over and over again to listen to and practice. When we experience life, we also practice together every day, because wu Renlin and I are both locals, and it is very convenient to correct pronunciation. In general, there is not much difficulty, after all, professional actors have received systematic language training, learn quickly, and can quickly integrate after finding the rules.
M.C. For most viewers, Haiqing's dialect standard may not be heard, but because Haiqing is a professional actor from abroad, everyone will pay special attention to her line presentation. What do you think the authenticity of the vernacular sound in the film has to do with the authenticity of the vernacular you want to present?
Li Ruijun: I have very high requirements for lines and language, and if it is not accurate, we will come over and over again, it doesn't matter if we repeat it twice or even dozens of times, we must be accurate. Because whether the audience can hear it or not, we can't fool ourselves. Because for me, film is a very serious thing. The cultural customs and behaviors of a place are related to the local language and the phonetic intonation of the language, which is a part of the culture and a symbol of culture.
Li Ruijun: In the trend of globalization, when we go to many cities and even new districts in many countries, we will see that the buildings built in these places are similar, the clothes they wear are similar, and the things sold in the shops are similar. Only when you hear the locals speak in tongues can you clearly realize that this is a different city.
M.C. For dialects and various colloquial expressions, do you basically determine when you write the script, or do you give the freedom of colloquial creation to the actors? How do you keep the language alive in your films?
Li Ruijun: Colloquial expression is actually very clear when writing the script, and we are constantly making adjustments when shooting the scene to make the lines closer to real life.
All movies come from life and come back to life. We refine the film from the everyday, and restore the everyday in the movie. The key to maintaining the vitality of language is to carefully understand and observe daily life.
M.C. The natural landscape of Gansu seems to be no stranger to the audience, and many commercial films will also go to Gansu to shoot. Your hometown of Zhangye has a well-known geopark. But obviously, in the commercial landscape presentation, the connection between man, nature and land is often missing. In your films, this connection is often concrete, real, and decisive. Can you talk about how the relationship between man and land is constructed in "Hidden in the Dust"? Or what role does land play in human relations?
Li Ruijun: Because the two characters in "Hidden in the Dust" are farmers, and everything they do is based on this land. They are two lonely individuals abandoned by their respective families, but they are like the crops and plants of this land, "reduced" to the children of the earth, and it is the land under their feet that accepts them. Moreover, when this land accepts them, it will not have any vision or any doubt.
Li Ruijun: [Land] is a being without [discriminating mind], whether you are a good person or a bad person, if you have made mistakes or not, you can live on the land, get food from the land, get houses, get wealth, get everything. You can also get love from the land.] This is their relationship with the land. And their understanding of love and everything is based on the land's tolerance and love for everything, which is obtained from their labor and from their relationship with the land.
M.C. At the beginning of last year, the TV series "Mountains and Seas", which depicts the changes in rural life in Ningxia, became a hit, and the national audience also had a new round of collective attention and imagination about the "northwest" in the lens. This "Great Northwest" imagination often includes northern Shaanxi, Ningxia, Gansu, and even parts of Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, and Xinjiang. For you, does the holistic concept of "Northwest" dissolve locality and weaken regional differences, or does it provide a possibility for localities to find their belonging in the territory of "native China" and find a way to speak in the overall narrative of "native China"? Do you mind being used by movie fans or audiences as a spokesperson for Northwest Movies or Gansu Movies?
Li Ruijun: Of course, from the geographical scope, Gansu belongs to the northwest, and my films are naturally northwest films, Gansu films, and films from the Zhangye region of the Hexi Corridor. I don't mind how people define it, but I can't actually be the spokesperson for Northwestern movies. In the past, many films of the fifth generation of directors started from the northwest, including Chen Kaige's "Yellow Land", Wu Tianming's "Old Well" and so on. In addition, many literary works about the Northwest, such as "Life", were later adapted into movies. Many of these works are stories that happened in the land of Shaanxi at that time, of course, there are also in Gansu, than He Ping's "Double Flag Town KnifeMan".
Li Ruijun: At present, it is possible to come to the northwest side to shoot, showing more landform scenery and presenting a more external northwest movie. For me, I was born and raised on this land, and the script I wrote itself is based on the people of the Hexi Corridor, the stories of living people, not the imagination of an outsider on this land. But there are also a lot of directors doing these jobs, and I'm just one of them, not a spokesperson.
M.C. It's been 15 years since "Summer Solstice" to "Hidden in the Dust." What do you think has changed your hometown since the film was so long?
Li Ruijun: Careful viewers should be able to observe some changes in the village from the movie, such as the previous civil structure houses, the road is a dirt road, and then gradually brick houses, cement roads, roads began to have cars, villagers began to use more modern living appliances. Another change is that the old people who are familiar with them gradually leave this world, and the young and newborn people are completely unknown. More and more young people are leaving the village to work and settle outside, and there are fewer and fewer people in the village. These are very different, and my relationship with my hometown is gradually changing subtly.
M.C. What are you looking at for other parts of China? Do you have any plans to go out of the "Northwest" and shoot out of the countryside in the future?
Li Ruijun: As a northwestern person, I may pay more attention to the situation in northwest China and the situation in rural areas across the country, and [the city] is not within my attention for the time being. In China, people living in the countryside are a huge group, but on today's 80,000-block screen, it is rare to see the stories of people living in the countryside and their emotional lives. So I still want to make more films about this group. For the future, there will be stories that happen in different cities, and there will still be stories that happen in the countryside of Gansu, all depending on the perfection of the script.
Executive Producer/Fionn
Editing/Sheep
Author, interview/introduction
Image source/courtesy of the interviewee