A love that binds

New movie explores parent-child relations on Inner Mongolian steppe, Xu Fan reports.

Growing up in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, filmmaker Qiao Sixue witnessed a shocking scene at just 4 or 5 years old, which became an inspiration for her directorial debut feature, The Cord of Life.

In the family's yard, Qiao's grandfather slaughtered a sheep as part of the ethnic Daur people's long-standing tradition of preparing and storing food for the harsh winter months.

The artist, who describes herself as "a sensitive person", has since then been haunted by this vivid scene of death, especially when picturing such a possibility falling on someone she loves.

"The feeling that witnessing death brings is scary and leaves a big impression. You will come away afraid that the people closest to you will completely leave you one day too," explained Qiao in an interview with China Daily given shortly before the movie's premiere, held in a downtown Beijing cinema.

The movie, with dialogue entirely in Mongolian, was released in domestic theaters on March 18 and has so far obtained a high rating of 7.8 points out of 10 on the popular review aggregator Douban.

Born in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia, in 1990, Qiao went to France to learn film editing in the late 2010s. Her childhood fear of death intensified after she encountered a middle-aged woman who appeared to be lost in thought on a street in Paris.

"The year was 2017 or 2018. The woman was about the same age as my mother, dressed thinly and wandering back and forth on the street. When I asked her what she was doing, she murmured she was looking for her home. At that moment, I had a complicated feeling," says Qiao, adding that it spurred her to call her mother, who was then fighting menopause.