Night Falls tells the story of a young man who worked in Beijing
He was 30 years old
The traditional Chinese New Year was approaching
On the way of returning to his hometown
He met various people
Including his childhood friend
His relatives
And his first love
He met a lot of difficulties
In marriage
And his career
My father and my grandfather,
They were all coal miners
I was forced by my father
To learn this major
When I was a freshman
The students’ union organized nearly 1,000 students
To watch the film
Slumdog Millionaire
In the auditorium
I was shocked by it
Then I thought of working in a mine for a year
To save some money to make a film
It would be more persuasive
If I could have my own work
The mine was as deep as 500 meters
I experienced earthquakes
And accidents
Those left a big shadow in my heart
In the coal mine
All I did was physical work
Cleaning and shoveling the coal
Moving and carrying things
The work made me numb
And I felt extremely tired physically
After work, I took a shower and returned to the dormitory
To write my script
I thought I could have a try
Whether it would succeed or not
The story was set in my hometown
Hequ County, Xinzhou, Shanxi
In winter
The Yellow River froze on the surface
Every time I went back home
I would take this road built along the river
From the county to the village
There are around 4 means of transport
In fact
There’s a little story about each means
About around half of the plot came from my real experiences
At my hometown
When my grandfather passed away
I just moved from the downtown of Beijing
To Yanjiao
And while I was on the way
A friend called me
Telling me that the landlord threw out the baggage
Of all the tenants
The two hard disks were lost
I stored all the footages I filmed in Beijing in them
Over the past years
I wanted to include the plot in the film
He was homeless
In Beijing
When he was in his hometown
He wanted to feel being at home
But he also felt as if he didn’t belong there
In 2020, it was more difficult to make a film
Due to the pandemic
The people in my hometown all said
A man should stand firm at 30
But I didn’t think I stood firm enough
I was really confused
Then I wanted to make a film
As a gift to me at 30
Also to all the 30-year-old people
Who left their hometowns
To work in big cities
In fact
One of my elder schoolmates invested almost 1/3 of the fund
For the film
And as for the left 2/3
I borrowed money from my classmates
Or online loan platforms
Such as Alipay, JD
I tried every means
And I was heavily in debt after the filming was finished
Every day my creditors called me
And I had been repaying the debts for the past two years
Still I haven’t paid off the debts
The 6th Pingyao International Film Festival
“The award goes to”
“Night Falls”
“Directed by Jian Haodong
“I will receive a bonus of 50,000 RMB”
“Now I have money”
“To do the final payment”
“After I return”
“Thank you for liking it”
After I come to Beijing
I sometimes miss the life in the mine
In fact
The life there was not restless
It was pure
Easy
And stable
Because of that bitter experience
I become stronger