The movie "Hidden in the Dust": the spiritual light of the earth

Author: Fu Shaowu

The earth gives birth to all things, let it flourish, and by its vicissitudes, it eventually takes in everything and disappears into the dust and smoke, but some are not like dust, nor like smoke. The movie "Hidden in the Dust and Smoke" is like this, which tries to retain the light of agricultural civilization and the spiritual light of the victims in the change of the times, giving people profound enlightenment and strength.

The protagonists in the film, Ma Youtie and Cao Guiying, are "outcasts" in the northwest countryside, one is an honest wooden, nearly half a hundred years old single stick, one is a "plague god" who is shaking and lame and often urinates incontinence, and the two abandoned people are matched together. They frothed with each other, resisted suffering, were loyal to kindness, collided with the spark of love in the day-to-day labor, and just when life was getting better and better, fate was uncertain, Guiying accidentally drowned, and there was iron abandoning the family and the land.

Suffering is the touchstone for the noble

Ma Youtie and Cao Guiying were materially destitute, but they did not bow their noble heads in the face of suffering. The first is the appalling poverty. They had no food or clothing, no decent clothes, and Guiying's coat covering his wet pants was purchased by borrowing; Often hungry, it is a blessing to be able to nibble on steamed buns at every meal; Even there were no houses to shelter from the wind and rain, so they had to borrow idle and dangerous houses everywhere, relocated repeatedly, and had no place to live. The only possession was the donkey who worked hard and worked for a living.

The second is heavy work. In order to be able to support themselves, they worked the barren land, ploughing the land, weeding, sowing, irrigating, harvesting, threshing, every link is inseparable from the primitive iron plough donkey farming, they must use both people and animals, go all out... Especially on a rainstorm night, in order to protect the adobe used to build the house, they desperately added a rain cloth, and the two fell to the ground again and again, covered with mud, until they could not stand up on the ground of the mud soup.

Finally, there is the snub and contempt of the neighbor. Guiying could not have children due to illness, but the motherhood of the beloved child was not extinguished. When she saw the children at the head of the village, she naturally leaned down to ask for warmth, but the parents immediately dragged the children to escape, almost like escaping the plague. Guiying went to the neighbor's house to watch TV with the iron, and when he left, he couldn't help but wet his pants, and he also wet the stool, which caused people to dislike it. There was iron hurriedly taking out a tissue to wipe it, but the wordless urine stain became a shame that they could not wash it clean.

In the face of suffering, instead of sighing and willing to fall, it is better not to be afraid of difficulties and climb the hill. There are iron and Guiying who see themselves in the wheat and accept the situation of life calmly: "What can the wheat say to the sickle?" What can wheat say to the sparrow that comes to peck at it? What can wheat say about grinding? If it is fortunate enough to be a seed, what can the wheat say? Whoever has the life of a man, the wheat is the same, or in the summer, it is cut off. "They went against the grain, took pleasure in their sufferings, constantly tempered their will, diligently ploughed the land with their hands, raised poultry, and built houses with soil, believing that the sun would one day shine on them.

The humble contain goodness

In the eyes of the world, You tie and Guiying have incurable chronic diseases, and are often snubbed and despised and disgusted, but they still have goodness in their hearts, and they will still rely on pure instinct to care for weaker lives. When he was a child, there was a crazy man in the village, nine out of ten children threw stones at him, Guiying gave him a bun, and was beaten by his family for several days without coming to bed. When an iron accidentally scoops tadpoles from the river, it will be carefully carried back to the stream. When the bulldozer was about to open the house, he hurriedly took away the swallows that were still in the nest under the eaves, and when he built a new house, he felt that the swallows recognized the nest, and picked up the swallow nest of the old house and placed it under the eaves. When he drank the noodle soup, he couldn't help but pick out a few noodles and feed them to the chickens with pity. He regarded the donkey as a companion, generously fed it a bud stick, and when the family was finally scattered, he specially led it into the wild and released this companion who was obedient like himself.

Ma Youtie believes in the "one yard to one yard" life principle, he does not care about what others owe him, but he does not allow himself to owe others, and the human gerry always hides dignity and nobility. When Zhang Yongfu urgently needed "panda blood" to continue his life, Ma Youtie resolutely donated blood for free, even if he worked all day and lacked nutrition, he still went to the city again and again for blood transfusions, only hoping that Zhang Yongfu would recover as soon as possible and his son could settle the arrears of the villagers. Zhang Yongfu's son bought two coats for Guiying to thank him, but he insisted that it was borrowed, and when the grain harvest was settled after the autumn, he would deduct the fee in person. He would put the bills for the seeds and fertilizer he owed on credit on a calendar and pay them back as soon as he sold the grain. When he bought the grass to build a house, the owner only had to pay back one and a half bags of potatoes, but he promised to return two bags, and to thank him after the autumn harvest, and the master was not there, leaving two bags of potatoes in front of the empty pasture hut.

"At the beginning of man, nature is good." Goodness does not distinguish between rich and poor, but the kindness of the poor is often tested by the economy and subject to political and cultural constraints, which is even more difficult to come by. You Tie and Guiying adhere to the moral self-discipline in their hearts, they are honest, sincere, trustworthy, and push this kind of kindness from the heart to themselves and people and things, more humane and loverly, not only the traditional virtues respected by people, but also the model of modern civilized society.

Small lives also have the right to love each other

Ma Youtie and Cao Guiying, two people who are rejected by the world, will come together, they will be awkward and cold at first, and then silently endure, accommodate each other, slowly understand in the migration and wandering, work in the fields, and worry about their stomachs in the livelihood of busy three meals a day, do not abandon each other, save each other, and unconsciously flash the light of love. There is Tie and Guiying getting married together, and the big red "囍" character is pasted on the wall, and every time you move, you will bring the word "囍" with you. There is an iron sticker "囍" word, always ask Guiying to look at the height, until the paste is flat and upright. There was iron in the winter into the city to pull things, very late to come back, Guiying in the village with a flashlight, curled up and waiting, still in his arms still had a bottle of hot water, the bottle of water was cold three times, hot three times, just for him to drink a mouthful of hot water in the cold winter. Although he complained that she should not wait here for a long time in the cold, he took the hot water bottle and took a sip, and a warm current surged into his heart, and he couldn't help but hold her trembling hand. They borrowed 10 eggs from their neighbors, packed them into hollowed-out boxes, lit electric lights, and hatched chicks. He comforted her that she could not have children, saying that these chickens had no mother, and whoever they saw after birth was the mother. The chicken grew up, laid eggs, and was reluctant to eat iron, so that the sick Guiying ate the eggs laid by his own chicken for the first time.

The love between Ma Youtie and Cao Guiying is not based on fertility, but on their deep love for the earth and their love for life: "What is not born in the soil, what is not grown in the soil." The soil does not abandon us, why do we still dislike it? "They loved the land with great enthusiasm, ploughed the land together, sowed wheat seedlings, sowed hope for life, sowed the seeds of love. He shouted in front of the donkey, and she sat on the plow and rake the ground; He was in the loose soil, she was weeding; He was harvesting golden wheat, and she followed closely behind to pick up the ears of wheat that had been pulled down; He transported the wheat in a donkey cart, and she sat on the donkey cart to press the wheat; He dried wheat in the clearing, and she brought over the wheat that had not been dried; He went to thresh the dough, and she made bread with the noodles... Hard labor brings their hearts closer and closer, and the flowers of love bloom in the toil of day after day. Next to the wheat straw pile, they put the grains together into the shape of a petal, pressed on the back of each other's hands, and a plum blossom was "planted" in the heart of the lover: "I planted a flower for you, made a mark, and you can't throw it away anywhere you run." On summer nights, the two slept on a roof built by hand, and there was iron worried that Guiying would roll over, so he tied her with himself with a trouser belt: "I'll tie you up, don't sleep until midnight and roll off the roof." There was iron looking at the harvest of wheat, laughing and promising Guiying that in the future, he would no longer have to endure hunger and hunger, and he could let go and eat, she smiled and said, no matter how much people eat, they only have one stomach.

After living in the newly built house, Guiying had a fever and accidentally fainted and fell into the ditch on the way to deliver food to Youtie. There was Tie Fen who jumped down and held her body high, but it was too late... Guiying's unexpected death disillusioned Ma Youtie's hope for the future and ended the sweet trend of love in the agricultural era. Someone advised him: "Don't be too sad, you now have a house and food, and it is good to live alone." But Ma Youtie, who had nowhere to go, immediately sold his grain, paid off his debts, and demolished the earthen house that sheltered the wind and rain, and disappeared into the dust and smoke from then on.

Everything comes from dust and will eventually fall into dust. From scratch, the soil will grow crops, houses and other materials, and will also grow the spirit of thoughts and emotions... When they flourish and live endlessly, they will fall from the climax in waves, return to a higher starting point, and start the cyclical movement again. Countless horses have iron, Cao Guiying bear hardships and stand hard work, struggle, as good as the earth, as simple as wheat, although there is only a faint happiness in the miserable life, which is blown away by the rain and the wind in an instant, but still full of noble personality, igniting love, igniting the fire of hope and integrity.

As a story that grew out of the desolate land, the movie "Hidden in the Dust" speaks for the peasants facing the loess and the sky, for the gradually escaping agricultural civilization, and for the homeless wanderers. It allows people to see the traces of the weak who have lived through pain and love, and understand the light of the spirit of the victims.

(The author is the director and researcher of the Art Department of Jiangsu Provincial Federation of Literature and Literature)

Source: China Art News