You see the white clouds in the sky gather and scatter, scatter and gather. Life is clutching, and so on...
Parting is sad, but the movie about parting, "The First Parting", has full of healing power. Through the hustle and bustle of the city, bidding farewell to the intrusion of science and technology, when we hide through the eyes of the camera, we project our eyes on a small village in Shaya, Xinjiang, and after following the growth of the boy Isa immersively, we reflect on our own lives, and perhaps have many feelings and changes.
The film is directed by the director Wang Lina, who was born in Shaya, which is a beautiful and young female director, but there is no doubt that the petite body contains a huge creative energy, after watching "The First Parting", through the lens and story of the film, we can deeply feel her incomparable love for the vast land that gave birth to her: poetic beauty, or magnificent, or idyllic, realistic characters, or rough, or innocent, for us to outline a picture of the years that accompany the daily sunrise and sunset.
Isa is the film's young male protagonist, who grew up in a poorer family, with an old father, a mother who is delirious because of illness, and an older brother who is also studying. So, for Isa, his life is to travel back and forth between school, family and farmland. Seemingly ordinary, but there are always accidents coming, little Isa, he continues to experience parting again and again.
We know that people's lives are always in the process of encountering and parting, slowly moving forward. But for a child like Isa, who is "not deeply involved in the world", those partings that have been planned for a long time or are suddenly unprepared are so profound every time. Therefore, although the title of the film is "The First Parting", the whole film brings too much heart-wrenching and helplessness in various partings again and again.
For example, bidding farewell to his brother who was not admitted to a higher school to go to a distant technical school; for example, being caught off guard by his mother who suddenly disappeared; for example, being separated from his close friend Kelly who transferred to another school; for example, his most beloved lamb disappeared... Family affection, friendship, and the "nurturing affection" between children and sheep all sharpen this brave and silent little man.
My brother is gone and will be back, but who knows, will he set off again?
The mother was lost and finally found, but was sent to a nursing home.
Of course, it was picked up later, but in the future, who knows?
Kelly is gone, and maybe one day, she can come back and continue to be a good friend.
And the beloved lamb is gone, really forever.
This world is so big, you can only maintain a relationship with anyone and anything, this period, whether short or long, there is always a moment to leave, just like the clouds in the sky, gathering and scattering, floating to the distance... Accepting parting and growing up, we are growing up stumbling like this, and in the future, there will be more parting. Mourning without hurting, leaving without crying, accepting all changes, and facing the next tomorrow calmly is the high point of "The First Parting" in the emotional narrative. There is no sensationalism, no tears, but with a subtle power, knock on your heart.
Therefore, when we look back on the road, we will also find that there are always some helpless goodbyes, once unforgettable, but gradually forgotten in time, and there are also some farewells, not even a greeting, so disappeared out of thin air... But after watching "The First Parting", those people, those things, but flooded the mind, scene after scene of the passing, re-engraved shallow and deep imprint.
Therefore, the film "The First Parting" can bring people a particularly wonderful perception, that extreme real scene, and seemingly designed but quite natural wind objects, all the characters, there is no trace of performance, which may be related to the director Wang Lina is a documentary background, when many movies, but also in front of the camera to perform, she will be the camera in the most secret deep, let us pick up the true taste of the world. When the subtitles rise, they still can't be withdrawn from the film, as if the lives of Isa and Kelly are still happening and going on in that distant and golden land, next to the timeless poplar forest...
ps：
"The First Parting" is a family love film jointly produced by Elephant Records, Tencent Pictures, Mango TV, YiTeng Film and Television, Shanghai Qiaoxi and Eying Group, directed by Wang Lina, produced by Qin Xiaoyu, and wang Han as the chief planner.
It is gratifying that after the film was unveiled, it received continuous attention from international filmmakers because of its unique poetic realism and documentary shooting methods, and won the best film in the Asian Future Section at the recently concluded 31st Tokyo International Film Festival. In the upcoming 69th Berlin International Film Festival, "The First Parting" has been shortlisted for the new generation unit of the film festival with its unique artistic value and excellent film quality, hoping to succeed in the Berlin Film Festival, and good works will not be buried.