Touching tale is a real eye-opener

It was not until he completed the third version of his screenplay that Bai Zhiqiang was confident enough to show it to Lu, and the feedback he received said that, "the characters are believable, the story is rooted in real life, and the film has potential".That reassured him to move forward with the project.

"Some people have said that I like to film 'marginal people'. I was quite stunned when I first heard this, because these ordinary people comprise the majority of China's population, yet do not get a lot of representation on the big screen," Bai Zhiqiang says.

"Since I have access to film as a medium, 'this machine with voices', I should speak for these ordinary people and tell their stories. The ordinary people are not marginal, but the majority."

The film has appeared at multiple film festivals, including FIRST International Film Festival, Beijing International Film Festival, and Silk Road International Film Festival. It was nominated for the 23rd Shanghai International Film Festival's "Asian new talent" award and named as one of the top 10 new Chinese-language films at the 6th Cinephile Prize, held online in 2021.

The film is now available for preview in around 100 Chinese cities. The crew is also going to visit 20 major cities in China, meeting with audience members, sharing their stories and answering their questions.

"It is rare to see such nuanced down-to-earth details in a film, such as the dirt under the protagonist's fingernails and the glistening of a child's running nose in winter. Only those with similar life experiences will pay attention to these details. This is what I call the texture of a film," says Shi Chuan, professor of the Shanghai Theatre Academy.