A different version of “The Sower,” Marine Francen’s poised and petite freshman feature, might have included the extended, rather remarkable story behind its literary source. Aged 84, former village schoolteacher Violette Ailhaud wrote her autobiographical short story “L’homme semence” in 1919, passing it to an attorney with clear instructions that it be given to her eldest female descendant in 1952, a full century after the events it documents; a curious, bittersweet tale of lost innocence and sexual conspiracy in a community of women, it remained in the family for half a century before being published, to steadily building acclaim, in 2006. Some manner of film adaptation was inevitable. Francen’s, however, honors Ailhaud by telling only the story she wrote, albeit with subtly modernized language and aesthetics, underlining its enduringly provocative gender politics in the process.
The resulting film is so delicately wrought and exquisitely visualized that the harsher, eerier details of...
The resulting film is so delicately wrought and exquisitely visualized that the harsher, eerier details of...
- 3/3/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Having worked as a producer in Pema Tseden’s (who is among the producers of this film) “Tharlo”, Wang Xuebo seems to have picked quite a lot from the Tibetan master, in a movie that moves along the same, utterly art-house, but incredibly beautiful and meaningful lines.
In the remote steppe of Ningxia, in western China, lies a community of Muslim Hui people, who live of their land in extreme poorness. In this setting, old Ma Zishan has just lost his wife, one of the most beloved people in the village. As he and his son are about to host a number of relatives for the 40-day ceremony of her death, his son, who had his mother in very high regard, insists that they should sacrifice their bull, in order to honor her properly, and make a big ceremony, to satisfy their many guests. The old bull however, is the...
In the remote steppe of Ningxia, in western China, lies a community of Muslim Hui people, who live of their land in extreme poorness. In this setting, old Ma Zishan has just lost his wife, one of the most beloved people in the village. As he and his son are about to host a number of relatives for the 40-day ceremony of her death, his son, who had his mother in very high regard, insists that they should sacrifice their bull, in order to honor her properly, and make a big ceremony, to satisfy their many guests. The old bull however, is the...
- 6/28/2017
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
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