Dalian East Matun Village is 150 km from the center of Dalian.
The conditions here are not good, the mountains are hilly, there is a lack of water, and there is no decent road.
But it was in such a harsh geographical place that the locals planted apples.
Mr. and Mrs. Hu Wanzeng and Wang Yufang are an ordinary fruit farmer in Dongmatun Village.
They planted more than three hundred apple trees, but in the middle of their lives, their lives are getting more and more difficult.
On the one hand, an apple from flowering to picking, scraping bark, spraying, rare flowers, thin fruit, bagging, bagging, fertilization, laying reflective film, constantly artificial watering, from beginning to end, physical work is indispensable.
On the other hand, there is the issue of sales channels.
Now there are many platforms selling agricultural products that have sprung up like mushrooms, such as a treasure, a certain east, a certain tide, a community group purchase... It seems that all platforms want to put a foot in the produce.
In ancient times, when one hand paid for the delivery of goods, the rule of money and goods had long been broken, there were more and more middlemen, and the battle line was dragging longer and longer.
Although these hitchhikings are risky, if they are not hitched, apples cannot be sold and can only rot at home.
In addition to serving more than three hundred apple trees, the couple had two children to take care of.
Compared to the quieter apple tree, the two children are obviously more "tricky".
The older sister, Hu Shuang, is 25 years old and suffers from severe schizophrenia, often falls into a state of visual and auditory hallucinations, and has suicidal tendencies.
The younger brother is called Hu Qiang, has an intellectual disability, is a small baby, tall and tall, as strong as a bear, and can't stop his mouth all day long.
This family is the protagonist of the documentary "Under the Apple Tree".
The director filmed them for a year and accumulated more than 500 hours of footage.
Sometimes, the director also plays a drum in his heart: Is it appropriate to shoot them?
Will a mentally handicapped son, a schizophrenic daughter, have any negative effects when it is broadcast on television?
But then he gradually realized that it was not he who chose hu Wanzeng's family, but this family gradually entered his vision.
In this family, there is the purest nature of the Chinese people, the most shining spirit, such as kindness, strength, positivity, optimism...
Hu Wanzeng said very little, and basically guarded his apple tree every day except for sleeping and eating.
In early April, Hu Wanzeng raced against time to scrape the old bark and spray medicine on the apple trees before the spring rain buds opened.
At the end of May, Hu Wanzeng was busy watering nearly a thousand trees, from early morning to midnight, and could only sleep four or five hours a day.
And these four or five hours are often discounted. His son Hu Qiang would make a fuss at night, so noisy that he couldn't sleep all night.
The weather was capricious, dry and rainy. Sometimes Hu Wanzeng was just tired and poured water like a dog, and the rain poured down.
You see, those on a certain red book are real lives, and these are the realities in the world.
In June, Hu Wanzeng had to follow the village hail brigade on duty twenty-four hours a day to prevent hail from coming.
In the middle and late years, more than 100,000 apples need to be bagged, and Hu Wanzeng can't finish it alone, so he can only find hired workers.
In late September, the apples had to be bagged, colored, and coated with reflective film, and Hu Wanteng was anxious to find hired workers to help.
When the autumn wind blows in October, a night of strong winds can blow off the apples of the growers.
The fruit blown off, even if it is not damaged, cannot be sold at a good price, and can only be sold to the factory at a price of a few cents a pound and made into juice.
Despite the arduous planting process, Hu Wanzeng was never fooled in planting apples.
In order to grow apples well, Hu Wanzeng, who has only read books for seven years, will go to the Academy of Agricultural Sciences once a year to learn the most advanced apple planting techniques with experts.
He forged ahead, boldly innovated, dared to innovate, and his apple orchard became an "apple demonstration industrial park".
After the success of his orchard, he took the initiative to help other growers, poured out his money, and then helped everyone sell apples.
Such a person, in the words of an employee in the film, is: "Good people must be treated well." ”
On the other side, Wang Yufang also kept spinning like a top.
Hu Shuang, a daughter with schizophrenia, always likes to run outside, and runs away without paying attention.
Last time, she ran to the field with a few hundred yuan, but fortunately, some kind people sent her to the shelter, and Wang Yufang could only go and pick her daughter back.
A closer look will reveal that people with mental illness are like this, feeling anxious and irritable in a fixed space, and like to run outside and run to lively places.
Locked in the house, if you don't pay attention, Hu Shuang will swallow a hundred sleeping pills.
There was no way, Wang Yufang had to look at her at home.
For more than twenty years, Wang Yufang took her daughter everywhere to seek medical treatment and medicine, from regular hospitals, to various folk remedies, to temples and temples, all of which were sought.
But the couple still did not give up, and took the child to the doctor as soon as they had the opportunity.
"After seeing so many hospitals and taking so many medicines, it is useless, but I still have to continue to look at it, in case it will be better one day?"
Hu Qiang, all day long, jumping around alive, his mouth is not stopping, grunting, let him do a job and play a trick.
At noon, Wang Yufang wanted to make a meal for Hu Wanzeng to send, often needing to cook while oiling the pump, and from time to time to run out to coax Hu Shuang, who was going outside, home.
A meal was ready, Wang Yufang did not shout tired, we were tired of watching.
Speaking of this, the couple almost never seems to shout tired, never complain about the sky, and the words of both people are very rare.
Think about it, for decades, every day has been like this, bitter and difficult, has been crushed into glass slag, shattered into their bodies, stuffed with throats and tears, leaving only hands and feet to keep busy.
The two were former elementary school classmates, and then they were together, originally immortal couples, but they did not expect fate to be so tricky.
Who can you blame? Complaining? Is it useful?
In this life of great pain and hopelessness, the couple still retains a valuable quality of self-esteem as a human being.
What I was most awe-struck was the family of four's ever-neat and clean clothes and the spotless room in the house.
Everyone should have seen that people with mental illness habitually sit directly on the ground, whether clean or dirty, and it is common to roll around on the ground.
In this case, maintaining decency is a difficult task.
But Wang Yufang wanted to clean up the two children and maintain the family neatly.
She always washed clothes by the river, several basins at a time, and took care of the pumping machine in between, and her daughter who was running around.
In Wang Yufang's heart, the children are around, more important than anything.
This is like what Yu Hua said in "Alive": "As long as the family is together every day, they don't care about any blessings." ”
Life is so hard, but Hu Wanzeng's family of four are rare good people.
In the event of a drought, families with wells sold water to other fruit farmers to water their trees, but Hu Wanzeng provided his well water for others to use free of charge.
He said: "It's not that it's pretending, it's that I can't do it to sell water, so I can use it if I need it." ”
For example, there is not enough labor at home, so you can only ask hired workers to help. During the work, Wang Yufang will do her best to make rice for the workers to eat and make them happy, and when her family celebrates the New Year, she will casually fry three dishes.
Every year, there are many weddings and funerals in the village, and every time Wang Yufang does not go on such occasions, she is afraid that leading the children will cause trouble to others.
Under such education, although Wang Yufang's two children have certain intellectual disabilities, their qualities are very good.
For example, when Hu Shuang was not ill, he would cook the dumplings and let his brother eat them first, and then bring a plate to his father, and only drink a few mouthfuls of dumpling soup.
When the apple harvest was harvested, the hired worker teased her and asked her to eat the cooked apple in her hand, and she did not say a word and brought out a large bowl to give to others.
For example, Hu Qiang will try his best to help his parents work, and will say a lot of words of thanks when the employees who help him leave.
……
In the face of the family, a sense of lack of language suddenly arises, and any sympathy becomes hypocrisy.
We are not entitled to sympathy and pity, because most of us are far inferior to them in the face of life's ups and downs and twists and turns.
It is precisely because of this that the documentary does not have any sensationalism. The director uses a plain perspective to the family, quietly recording, not interfering, not changing, not deliberate.
The film is presented with real-time images and sounds as the basic elements, and the explanation of the natural environment and macroscopic background is mostly presented with a fixed camera panning lens to show the large panorama and long-range view, thus maximizing the reproduction of the original ecology and diversity of life.
It can be said that "Under the Apple Tree" is not a documentary made, but the director picked it up from life.
In those places of silence, the true meaning of life shines brightly.
At the end of the film, Hu Wanzeng's apple is red, and this apple is too red to be easy.
This makes me blame myself, because I often forget to be in awe and respect, and how much effort I have put into so many things that are within reach.
Life is bitter, the apple is sweet, the red and sweet of the apple, as if it was brewed by Hu Wanzeng's family with pain.
Blessings seem too light and weak, and begging God for favor seems ridiculous in front of this family. All I can do is eat every apple carefully, and then live well and live without being fooled.
Life disappoints, but life can't be desperate, can't be fooled, can't it?
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Tong Yunxi
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