Saturday 5 October 2024
12:00 AM |

A First Farewell

Deep in northwestern China, surrounded by cotton fields and desert, lies the Uyghur village that Isa calls home. When he is not at school or working on his parents’ farmyard, he spends carefree days with his friends – until the outside world starts forcing him to say one goodbye after another.

Language
  • Mandarin
  • Uyghur
Runtime
86
Production Year
2018
Film Type
Feature
Production Countries
  • China
Casts
Isa Yasan, Kalbinur Rahmati, Alinaz Rahmati, Musa Yasan, Yasan Kamisu, Ugulem Sugur, Tajigul Heilmeie,, Rahmati Kuramu, Kuramu Kasimu
Production Company
Shanghai Eternity Media & Culture
Premier Status
Regional premiere

Crew List

Director
Wang Lina
Screenwriter
Wang Lina
Producer
Qin Xiaoyu, Cai Qingzeng
DOP / Camera
Li Yong
Editor
Matthieu Laclau
Music
Wenzi
Sound
Li Danfeng

Festivals / Awards

2018: Asian Future Best Film Award
2019: Berlin International Film FestivalWinner Crystal Bear, Special Prize of the Generation Kplus International Jury (best feature)
2019: Hong Kong International Film Festival
2019: Tokyo International Film Festival

Director/s

Wang Lina
Wang Lina
Profile

Photos

Film Critic

A poetic piece

Kamyar Mohsenin
Kamyar Mohsenin

It is not surprising at all that the main winner of Generations in Berlinale 2019 takes back the audience to the world of the unforgettable Iranian children’s films in the eighties and the nineties. Simple narrative, rural setting, non-professional children actors, thought provoking imagery and moralistic allegory leads to piece without naturalistic touch of Kiarostami’s classics, but to the colorful, vivid world of Majidi’s early works. In a village in China, between the cotton fields and the desert, Isa is destined to be left alone and say farewell to the mother who is ill at the hospital, to the best friend who is expelled from the school and the little lamb which is gone. In her debut feature, Wang Lina succeeds to make a touching film which undermines the meaning of the absence in its images. In this way, she delivers a poetical piece on belonging and being left alone. Fortunately the director does not pretend to be too intelligent and too witty all the time. So she finds a way to create the world of childhood as sensitive and pure as it is. She finds a way to create a world of hope and despair as realistic and accessible as it is.


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