As an important festival for Chinese people, the Mid-Autumn is only next to the Spring Festival in terms of significance. The round and full moon in the sky represents the people’s best wishes for "family reunion" and "full life”. Two most “family-themed" films in 2022 will also be screened during the incoming Mid-Autumn Festival. 

Both films were shortlisted for the main competition section, Tiantan Award, at the 12th BJIFF this year. One is In Search of Lost Time, the opening film at this year’s BJIFF, which was screened today (September 9); the other is Song of Spring to be screened tomorrow (September 10). Wu Yanshu won the Best Actress at the 12th BJIFF this year with her excellent performance in this film.

Both films are themed with family. 

In Search of Lost Time, directed by Derek Yee, is adapted from the historical event of “three thousand orphans entering Inner Mongolia”: In the 1950s, floods swept the South China and a natural disaster deprived many children of the parents, resulting in countless orphans. The large number of orphans were far beyond the capability of the local government. With the guidance of the CPC central committee, the government of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region accepted 3,000 orphans from the disaster-stricken area in South China and handed them over to local herdsmen for raising. 

At the beginning of the film appears the monstrous flood which has separated countless families: a girl who follows her elder brother and mother to Shanghai for refuge is abandoned at the gate of the orphanage. Soon after, she leaves the south for the grassland. Half a century later, the elder brother and the mother embark on a journey to the grassland with a strong sense of guilt to look for the abandoned girl. With the journey of the elder brother, the life of the young girl after her residence on the grassland is gradually unfolded for the audience like a long scroll. 

On the grassland, the girl gradually grows from a little kid of Han nationality in the south into a Mongolian girl who can ride horses and herd sheep. She becomes a member of a family thousands of miles away from her hometown. In the film, "family" means not only a kind of kinship but also a grand love beyond the time, space and nation. The distance of thousands of miles and the time of half a century can never prevent two family members from being reunited; despite lack of blood relations and different nationalities, they can stay together as a family so long as there is love. “Three thousand orphans entering Inner Mongolia” witnesses the friendship between two ethnic groups of Han and Mongolia, and it is also regarded as a legendary story about “family". 

The film was screened nationwide today. 

Different from the family reunion story in In Search of Lost Time, Song of Spring tells the story of family members staying with each other in daily life. The film is about a 85-year-old mother and her 65-year-old daughter who depend on each other. The daughter always carries a strict expression with slight obsession with cleanliness, while the mother behaves more like a child as she gets older. In daily life, it is the daughter who takes care of her mother. In the final stage of life, the roles of daughter and mother seem to be reversed. 

However, the sudden Alzheimer's disease gradually deprives the daughter of the self-care capability. As the dam of reason gradually collapses, some memories and emotions accumulated in the mind for long also burst out like a flood to greatly impact their lives. With the strong maternal love, the elderly mother once again squeezes energy out of her dying body and vows to protect her daughter and their life like a “she-wolf protecting her cubs”. 

As the final chapter of the "Women's Trilogy" series directed by Yang Lina, Song of Spring, as well as Longing for the Rain and Spring Tide, focuses on the fate of women in family relationships. Alzheimer's disease brings physical pain to the daughter, but it frees her from the rules and regulations restricting her in the society. With the power of maternal love, the mother also weaves a safety net known as "family" under her body although she is also pushed into the abyss of disease. Family is always our harbor at any time and the mother's arms are always open to the kid.

The film will be screened nationwide tomorrow.