After not seeing the big screen for a long time, the news of the resumption of work in the cinema has made many fans feel inspired. Since the art of film became the "seventh art", people do not seem to have been separated from film for so long. After the resumption of work, due to the non-uniformity of the resumption time in various regions and the number of people in the epidemic prevention and control, most theaters are still showing popular films from the past, except for this one - "The First Parting".
The process of growing up is parting again and again.
In addition to the title, the footage of this Xinjiang children's film is also easy for people to see the shadow of Iranian films, and the blood of ghost directors Abbas and Farhati flows in the film as if they are nothing, so that Wang Lina, an unknown female director in Xinjiang, gradually becomes noticed.
The film also has a great feature, its documentary-style shooting method makes this film about "parting" more realistic, imitating Flahadi's large number of long shots, follow-up shots and fixed shots, although it will make the narrative rhythm drag, but this simple and unpretentious camera application, so that this only 5-person camera team cleverly realizes the director's expected narrative and performance between real and fictional.
Only by grasping the shooting method can we truly understand the cleverness in the narrative. There is no famous actor in the whole film, most of them are "actors" with no acting experience, and even some extras do not know that they are participating in the film shooting, and the right is to shoot a life documentary. In his teaching of young actors, the director used the Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda's approach of "not directing the performance, only capturing the reaction". This makes the film's improvisation occupy a large part, and also makes the film full of emotion.
The film takes place in the Shaya region of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and the two family lives of the protagonist little boy Aisa and the heroine Kaili Binur's sister and brother form the main line of contrast in the film, and several partings have become the narrative core of the whole film. Isa's mother is seriously ill and bedridden, her brother is out of school, her father is unable to support the family alone, and the burden of life falls on little Isa. In class, he stated his three wishes: to be a doctor to cure his family's illness, to take care of a friend, and to buy a favorite toy—Isa had no toys, only a lamb destined to be sent as a sacrifice.
Three wishes so clear, but in the film one by one parted ways with him. Accompany his brother to college; because one person can't carry the burden of life, his father has no choice but to send his mother to a nursing home; his only friend, Kyli Binur, leaves his hometown to learn Mandarin in Kucha; after several blows, Isa returns home to find that her lamb is gone. Heartbroken, Aisa rides a donkey to find a sheep in the snow, and for the first time uses tears to vent her long-accumulated emotions.
Kelly Binur's storyline is much simpler. Originally a good student, her Mandarin proficiency dropped again and again, resulting in her mother being severely criticized by teachers at the parent-teacher meeting, and her parents began to prepare to send her to Kucha to study in order to seek better development.
Soon to leave home, Kylie Binur asked her parents again and again: "Can you take Grandpa with you?" "Can you take Isa with you?" Not only that, but what lingered in her mind was the separation of her parents - "Are they going to divorce?" Eventually, Kylie Binur's parents chose to live apart. She also completed her own growth and parting.
After being quietly scrutinized, people finally begin to think about growing up. The signifier and the signifier of the lens language of this film are very thorough, the fresh and clean composition and picture, a large number of poplar empty mirrors and backlit silhouette character shots with a unique aesthetic view indicate that this is a pure film belonging to children. But in the final scene of Aisa riding a donkey to find a sheep, the picture is suddenly mixed, although there is only a vast white snow and Aisa riding a donkey. This is the director's narrative way of expressing "growth", and it is also the end of a unique long poem.
Although it is a Uyghur film, the various "costs of growth" inherent in the film itself can be felt and convinced by the audience. In other words, these things are inevitable for everyone. From the perspective of the elders, there is not a single part of these partings that are not for the better growth of the characters in the film, but for these introverted and calm children, they are only painful for the parting. We know this, but the emotions of helplessness also make us happy and sad with the characters in the film.
Growth is a foregone conclusion, but how should we sustain ourselves? The director doesn't give the answer directly, but in documentary-like films, the director more or less embodies his point of view in the shot. Many shots are calm, but still full of tension.
In the film, all the sudden changes, the director is shown through the contrast of the light source of the sun and the mountain. The specific scene in the film is that the character is standing on a mountain, stepping on the sun's rays, that is, "the sun is under people". But every time there is a break, when parting, the light source is sufficient, that is, "the sun is above man". When there is a problem, the world is bleak, and when the problem is solved, the sun is just right.
If this metaphorical shot is not enough for the audience to understand, then when Aisa reads her brother's letter, her brother tells Isa to accept and try to change the dilemma, that is, the director expresses his thoughts to the audience in front of the screen. The delicate shots and the rough expression of the characters, although they do not solve all the problems perfectly, but before judging whether they are good or bad, we can only and must silently support all their choices.
This is the helplessness and acceptance expressed in the film, and it is the combination of realistic interrogation and ideal sublimation. If it weren't for this, the film would never have won best picture in the New Generation Children's Section at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival as its directorial debut.
"The First Parting", as the first new film after the theater resumed work, i don't know whether it was a coincidence or a deliberate act, has added a poetic atmosphere to it. The most important point that film aesthetics give to the public is its "private time" attribute, and "private time" is where modernism pursues and even shouts for it, and it is also a major reason for the film's niche - this is the director's family letter to his hometown.
The process of "feeling time" is one of the aesthetic appeals relied on by modernist art, including film aesthetics, including journalistic aesthetics. The subjective contents of "stream of consciousness", "private historical memory", "delusional time and space" and so on generated by it have become the objects of expression favored by modernist art.
So, go to the movie, in this "first parting" with the movie, and reunite with the moment of long goodbye, this is the experience of the growth of the movie, but also ours.
The author | Yan language
Responsible editor| Liao Qian