On May 12, the film "A Date in This Life" about Chinese rural teachers held a screening event at Shanghai Daguangming Cinema. Director Yang Jianhua and the main creative team attended and shared with the audience the sad and happy life behind the tear-jerking story.

Event site

The movie "A Date in This Life" is adapted from the true deeds of "Model of the Times" and "Moving Chinese Character" Zhang Yugun. It tells the story of "a shoulder pole, three generations of teachers, and a mountain village primary school". An inspirational story of being trapped in the mountains.

In the film, three generations of rural teachers were "trapped in the mountains" due to objective difficulties, or because they voluntarily chose to return to the mountain village. Behind the brilliance of human nature, there are also waves of development of the times.

"A Date in This Life" poster

After confirming that the film needs a realistic style with a sense of age, the main creative team decided to look for an ancient village in the north, and finally found a 500-year-old mountain village "Shidagou" in the depths of Taihang Mountains in Linzhou. Here The houses and lanes are all made of stones, like a stone castle, which makes the camera picture full of simple charm.

The story of the film will span 70 years, which poses a great challenge to setting the scene and serving the road. The main creative team repaired the dilapidated school and restored the century-old house to its original appearance. Some props were picked up from abandoned debris. return. Many of the actor's costumes were searched from farmers' homes.

The film stars Wang Jianqiao, Xu Shaowu, Yu Hua, Xue Qing, and Pang Yong. In order to play this rural movie well, the protagonists ate and lived with the farmers in the mountains, exposed to the wind and the sun, and over time, they actually looked and looked like the local mountain people. In order to highlight the characteristics of Central Plains culture, the actors practiced Henan dialect hard, and the original music of the film uses Henan local opera as elements, giving the film the unique local flavor of non-fiction feature films.

Stills of "A Date in This Life"

Director Yang Jianhua once lived in the Northwest and the Jinggangshan countryside. He has a deep understanding of the hard life of farmers and rural teachers, so he wanted to use the things that moved him to impress others through movies. Zhang Yugun’s deeds let him find entry point.

In the film, the helplessness and sacrifice of the rural teachers, as well as the tragic fate they had to endure because they lived in a backward rural area, are embarrassing. However, their dedication to education and children, and their selfless dedication moved many viewers to tears.

"What you see is a movie from Dashanli. It is a low-cost movie. It has no technical content. All the creations come from a sincere and simple heart. There is no grand narrative, and there is nothing dazzling. Everything starts from the true thoughts and actions of the characters. The sublime is born from the humble, just like flowers are born from the soil." Director Yang Jianhua said.

Screenwriter Lu Ye believes that when telling ordinary characters, let the characters take root in the land, see human nature in the smoke and fire, and the most authentic state of life is the most convincing place.

Stills of "A Date in This Life"

The movie "A Date in This Life" took three years to complete, and was nominated for "Best Foreign Language Feature Film Award" and "Best Director" at the 11th Madrid International Film Festival in Spain; "Best Actor Award" and other related awards in more than ten European and American international film festivals, and achieved good results.

As the place where the prototype story in the film takes place, Heihumiao Primary School has trained dozens of college students and even graduate students in the era of backwardness and poverty. Thanks to the efforts of two generations of rural teachers, no child in the surrounding mountain villages has dropped out of school. Today, there are still 2.9 million rural teachers who light up the spark of knowledge and culture for children in the most basic and difficult positions. "I hope that the tens of thousands of rural children who walk into the city will not forget where they came from, and the teachers who have nurtured them. The whole society must express its gratitude to those obscure rural teachers who burn themselves and illuminate others. Respect." Director Yang Jianhua once wrote the voice of the filming team in his creative notes: The sons and daughters of the rivers and lakes gather together in the mountains and forests to do something extraordinary; the wind and rain are in the same heart, Taihang casts a sword, making a passionate and inspirational film.

It is reported that the movie "A Date in This Life" will be released nationwide on June 28.