Moderator: Liu Shu

Guest: Zha Xiaoyuan (director)

Pass Away

2008 / China / Zha Xiaoyuan / 59 min / Chinese and English subtitles

Moving

2009 / China / Zha Xiaoyuan / 54 min / Chinese and English subtitles

- Winner, Basalt Prize at Yunfest 2009 (the Yunnan Multi Culture Visual Festival)

“With simple cinematic language, director Zha Xiaoyuan transforms rug-weaver Lao Ma into a synonym for the tenacity of the Chinese people of today.”

—Jury comment from the 2009 Yunnan Multi Culture Visual Festival, on Zha Xiaoyuan’s documentary film Moving

UCCA Art Cinema presents Pass Away and Moving, two documentary films by independent director Zhao Xiaoyuan. Pass Away, whose Chinese title means “to return to Allah,” tells the story of a Muslim man in his nineties who survived the great Gansu Earthquake of 1920, and his wife, who is in her seventies. A fascinating portrait of the daily lives of two elderly Chinese Muslims, and their attitudes toward life and approaching death. Moving examines the situation of an impoverished Hui minority family living in Ningxia Province: their lives and work, joys and sorrows, funerals and weddings.

Synopsis of Moving:

Lao Ma is a traditional rug-weaver living in Xihaigu, Ningxia, an area renowned as “the poorest place around.” The three generations of his family face a life of perpetual poverty. When the region is struck by a prolonged drought, the harvest is destroyed, water must be bought from neighboring regions, and the family is forced to spread out in search of work harvesting facai moss or laboring in coal mines. Lao Ma is further burdened by the loans he took out to pay for his son’s marriage. As his grandchild’s delivery date approaches and his daughter-in-law faces complications, they can only rely on fate.

Synopsis of Pass Away:

Pass Away, whose Chinese title means “to return to Allah,” is the story of a Muslim man in his nineties who survived the great Gansu Earthquake of 1920, and his wife, who is in her seventies. A fascinating portrait of the daily lives of two elderly Chinese Muslims living in Xihaigu, an impoverished area of Ningxia Province, and their attitudes toward life and approaching death.

Director’s Bio

Zha Xiaoyuan (b. 1957, Sichuan) worked for ten years as an engineer for the Ningxia Bureau of Posts and Telecommunication and for twelve years as an entrepreneur. In 2004, he volunteered to teach in a small village in Ningxia, with the intention of making a film. His documentary film Moving, completed in 2009, was the outcome of his extended stay among the villagers.

Director’s Statement: Moving

For many years, I had bad been unable to rid my mind of the image of the facai moss pickers—people huddled in earth-colored blankets on hand-carts and carrying blackened pots hanging from sticks. I wondered where they came from, where they were going, how they lived and how they saw themselves, so I went to their hometown to teach at a local school for a year. That is how I met and befriended Lao Ma and many other facai pickers. Lao Ma is a weaver of traditional rugs, a devout Muslim and hard-working man who desires only to weave his rugs, tend his animals, farm the land, and have enough to eat and clothe his family. But years of drought have destroyed the soil, ruined the harvest, and forced the family to find other work and ways to survive. In the two years I spent making this film, I think I have come to understand the life of Lao Ma and his family. Before I made this film, I was fairly certain that I was living my life the way I should be, but now I have doubts. I hope that more people have the opportunity to see this film and to better understand the lives of people like Lao Ma and his family and neighbors.

Director’s Statement: Pass Away

Luo Yansheng is an elderly man, an average farmer living in an impoverished mountainous region. Although life is hard, he and his wife have each other to reply on for comfort in their old age. Luo’s only wish is that things could be easier for his wife, that she could live her days in peace without worrying too much about their children and their future. When death arrives, their children and friends arrange a solemn and traditional Muslim funeral, in the hope that the deceased will finally, after a life of privation and hard work, be able to rest in peace.

NOTE:

Box office will close 30 minutes after the film starts.

Guest:

Zha Xiaoyuan (director)

Partners:

Hour Hand Film Workshop

Non-Profit Incubator Beijing

SunTV