Pingyao film festival: From Shanxi to the world
- By Zhang Rui
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E-mail China.org.cn, October 19, 2019
The Third Pingyao International Film Festival, being held in the ancient city of Shanxi province, promoted its local productions and a Shanxi studio-produced BRICS co-production on Thursday.
"Belated Confession," directed by Shanxi director Li Bin, held a premiere on the eighth day of the festival, which coincided with the 6th China Poverty Alleviation Day.
"The film was hard to make,” admitted Li at the premiere, "I didn't want to make another ode to a hero like before, I wanted to create it in a simple manner to tell a story in a down-to-earth way. We worked so hard in preparation and script in order to find a breakthrough."
The story is about a Chinese soldier's quiet contributions to poverty relief and to the country.
It was praised by Lyu Yansong, member of the standing committee of the CPC Shanxi Provincial Committee and head of the provincial publicity department, who said: "It relates to how poverty alleviation cadres lead local people out of poverty and getting rich. The film's background is in Shanxi, and it was filmed here. It shows the spirit of Shanxi people's hard work in poverty alleviation and their high spirits."
Wen Wei, deputy director and editor-in-chief of China's Poverty Alleviation magazine under the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, commented: "I don't think there are enough decent and excellent works regarding poverty alleviation topic. Therefore, a good film like 'Belated Confession' is very precious. The creative team really tells good stories about poverty alleviation work in China with heart, great efforts and emotion."
"Belated Confession" is one of the local films that gained spotlight on the platform receiving worldwide attention - a “Made-in-Shanxi” section of the Pingyao film festival to support local filmmaking. It is featuring the world premieres of Shanxi-related films such as Yang Jin's "Thata Girl," Shen Cong's "Brothers," Zhang Xian's "Best Director" and Yin Dawei's "Father, Father."
On the same day, the third BRICS co-production project "Neighbors" also made its world premiere at the festival. The previous two projects, "Where Has Time Gone?" and "Half the Sky" had debuted in the previous two editions of the Pingyao film festival. Such a co-production project normally consists of five short films by five directors from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The new work is directed by Brazil's Beatriz Seigner, Russia's Alexander Zolotukhin, India's Rima Das, China's Han Yan and South Africa's Jenna Bass. The Chinese short story in it, "Old Neighborhood," provided the opening screening of the film festival. The film is produced by Jia Zhangke's Shanxi Xstream Pictures, which is the first time for a Shanxi studio to be involved in a world project.
Jia, who had directed China story back in 2017 for the first installment "Where Has Time Gone?" of the program, attended its world premiere in Pingyao with fellow directors Seigner, Das and Bass along representatives from local government and Brazilian and Russian embassies.
For Seigner, neighbors don't have bloodline bond, but they can also be like a family, "The film's creators are also from different backgrounds and cultures and they worked together like a family."
According to Jia, "The BRIC countries are fast-growing economies, and their contemporary film creations are very active, but because of the geographical distance among us that are too far apart, it is difficult for us to understand one another.
"But If the directors of the five countries can create something under a same theme, and here it is, it is very meaningful. It is a motion picture way to understand one another."
Jia said the film will be released nationwide in the first half year of 2020 and will be shown at other film festivals around the world.
On Thursday, several officials from local governments of provincial, municipal and county levels, also held a press conference to introduce Shanxi's cultural and tourism industry and sites, particular the ones in Jinzhong city and in Anze county, hoping to establish closer relationship with China's and worldwide film industries.
Zhang Yu, deputy director of the publicity department of the CPC Shanxi Provincial Committee, explained: "This will provide opportunities for the development of Shanxi's film and television cultural industry and boost vitality. It is not only a window to promote Shanxi movies, but also will play an important role to promote Shanxi culture and its industrial transformation. We will welcome the world's filmmakers with a more open manner, and welcome you to come to Shanxi to make films."
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