Eternal beauty
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Scene from An Eternal Lamb. [Global Times] |
Featuring the nomadic lifestyle of Kazakh minorities in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, color film An Eternal Lamb is currently screening at Beijing's Broadway Cinemas until mid-February.
Adapted by well-known Xinjiang-Kazakh playwright Yeerkexi Huermanbieke, from her own essay of the same name, An Eternal Lamb is also China's first film made in the language and, according to her, one of the very few on such a topic made by the Kazakh minority with people outside the ethnicity.
Director Gao Feng believes that since it is a film about the Kazakh minority, then it should remain true to them.
"The films and documentaries about Kazak people in the past were mostly done in Chinese," Gao said at the film's premier last week. "But their own language can better present their culture and people's inner feelings and personalities."
From settings, actors, music and costumes, Gao wanted to make sure the film was truly authentic. A group of Kazakh actors and actresses were employed and it took the cast a year and a half to shoot in Kanas, the northernmost part of Xinjiang, bordering Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia, from late 2008.
Only actor Nuerlan Alimujiang from Kazakhstan was trained; the rest, from teenage boy to 70-year-old man, were all non-professionals - but their natural acting skills did not disappoint the premiere's audience at all.
"The film shows the real life of the herdsmen on the grasslands. Our actors have the advantage because they are closer to that lifestyle," Gao said, when asked by an audience member who questioned their amateur status. "We designed the parts for each actor to show the most natural side of them."
Choosing non-professional actors was also partly because of Gao's former experience making documentaries.
"We documentary directors have a special perspective: we don't like artificial, we want natural, real participants," he explained. "We found those actors on different occasions but they all turn out to be very good."
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