"Return to Dust" is a film shot throughout the year
It's about how two people bound and start a family
Their parents passed away early
And they lived off their bother and sister-in-law
They were just so easy to be overlooked in the village
Guiying (starred by Hai Qing) has some health problem
She can't get pregnant or does intense physical work
Therefore she becomes other people's burden
Which makes her always nervous and uncomfortable
Getting together with Laosi (Ma Youtie)
Is not part of her plan
They become a family
It's a process from strangers, to acquaintances, to lovers
Their life also enters a spring full of hope
And to a summer full of life
Then to autumn where they harvest the fruit of life
"Let's tie you up a bit"
"So you don't roll off the roof"
Haiqing said on the FIRST film festival
Young directors may as well set their sights on middle-aged actresses 20 00:01:41,919 --> 00:01:48,040 I just finished a script, then I sent it to her
And she really liked the part
And she would love to play it
I told her, you must trust me with your time and everything
You need to experience the part for at least 22 days to a month
And it would add up to two months altogether
The second to the fifth shooting would need half a month each time
And you can not be in other films during that time
You must speak the local dialect
She agreed to all that
We had a month to try out the makeup
Including changing the shape of her eyebrow
And the texture of her skin
At first both her makeup and outfit were grey
Then there began to be colors
We could see charm in her
To live and feel as a local person
It would take a year to do this
Professional actors didn't have time for it
The film was made in the village where I was born and raised
At last we decided to let my uncle do it
And my parents also showed up in the film
Also did some producing work
My brother too, he is the grain collector towards the end
The clothes seller in the film is my lover
My father is a teacher and my mother is a farmer
I've always wanted to make something
That represents the close relationship between human and the land
In the perspective of Laosi and Guiying
The people and world around them
Are changing rapidly in the process of modernization
And they are slower
“Earth construction"
We start from scratch
The traditional way of construction
At the beginning I drew a blueprint
My uncle's son, me, my brother, my father
We brought back soil and mud everyday, dry them up and pile up
During the break of filming
We'd build the house
At different stages, we resumed shooting
Shoot and build, building while shooting
People say film is an art of time
I've had this idea in my head for seven, eight ears
Why don't we make a film recording the change of seasons
Grain is the corpse of wheat
You may say it's seed
Soil becomes house and house collapses down to soil again
Winter leaves
But only hides somewhere
Some time later it revolves back
Farmers have their four seasons in the land
They deal with time and life year after year
And we leave the fate of the film for time and land to decide
"I never even dreamed about it"
"To have my own home"
"And to sleep on my own bed"
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