Film Name: 第一次的离别 / A First Farewell
Honestly, if it wasn’t the first new film to be released after the cinema resumed work on 20 July 2020, “A First Farewell” might not have had the popularity and attention it has today – the film was shot in 2018 and had a good record at various film festivals.
The film, which was shot in 2018 and has had a good run at various film festivals, clearly doesn’t have much of an appetite for the “box office market”, so it’s probably a good idea to “take the bull by the horns” at this point in time, both for the theatres and for the film itself.
A First Farewell was born out of director Wang Lina’s strong sense of nostalgia, and she used an almost documentary form to describe an ordinary life in Shaya, Xinjiang, in which all the actors are not professional actors, but just ordinary people.
The film shows the most natural state of affairs in the region, and it is for this reason that their conflicts, choices and partings are all the more real, simple and down-to-earth.
[Friendly reminder: there will be spoilers below, but they do not affect the viewing experience].
A First Farewell is a film with very few “contradictions”. It starts from the point of view of a young boy, Isa, and a young girl, Kelibinul, and takes a look at the ups and downs of their lives – how complicated can a child’s world be? How complicated can a child’s world be? So, apart from some real family concerns, the film is light and clear.
Probably the biggest conflict in the whole film is the departure and retention of Isa’s mother, and the response of the Jehemituli family to their children’s academic performance, thus requiring the adults to make appearances to show the nature of the problem.
However, the adult scenes are only a supplement in this film; A First Farewell is essentially about the troubles of the children, and their growing up against the backdrop of old and new civilisations, and the academic pressures of the family.
In this respect, the film claims to be on point everywhere, with irresistible partings present in the slow-paced, minimally-changing lives of Isa and Kelibinur.
Firstly, there is the separation of Isa and his brother. Among the men who take care of his mother, the youngest, Isa, is the least accustomed to the fact that, in addition to caring for his mother, who is unable to take care of herself, he has to go to school and work in the farm, and these pressures have not yet wiped out his playful nature, which gives rise to the scene in the beginning of the film in which his mother “loses it”.
Unlike his older brother, who at Isa’s age had the same fantasy as his younger brother that his mother would get well, he has seen the reality of the situation clearly over the years, and knows that there are many things that he can’t do for himself, so he puts his hopes on the school in the provincial capital and the outside world.
“Mum is in your hands.” The moment his brother left, Isa seemed to grow up all of a sudden.
However, this is not enough, because next Isa will have to face the separation from her mother. The three men, father, brother and himself, were already struggling to look after a woman, and the difficulties of having one less young man could be imagined. ……
My father made a very big decision: to put my mother in a nursing home. In contrast to the material difficulties (after all, there is a government guarantee), the decision was not easy, because it was against the tradition and the separation of the mother.
Wishful thinking is no match for reality, and Isa is powerless to prevent her mother’s departure. Even though she can visit her in the nursing home afterwards, when night after night comes and she misses her mother but is unable to see her, Isa, who cries out for her mother under the starry sky, is sure to be confused as to why she has to go through such an “ordeal”! “The story of Isa’s mother is a story of a woman’s life.
Compared to Isa, Kelibinur’s family is obviously much better off, and she has a pair of parents who know how much they care about her academic performance – her mother, out of personal experience, believes that a poor Chinese language learning experience in the region means that she has very few choices in the future, and she doesn’t want her child to go back to her old ways.
The father was gradually persuaded to move for the sake of his child’s studies, leaving Kelibinur to “compromise” step by step: can she not move? Can we move the house too? Can we take Isa with us? Can we take Grandpa with us? Naturally, none of these little wishes were granted.
Kelibinur doesn’t yet understand how important it is to learn Chinese well, and her initial effort is just to avoid leaving her hometown. …… But in many cases, it’s only after leaving that the meaning of “parting” begins to sink in.
One of the film’s most meaningful partings is the last, even if it seems the most insignificant: the loss of Isa’s beloved lamb.
This little lamb throughout the film is not much footage, but it is very meaningful. It is not only the “pet” that Isa and Kylie Bignall raised together, it is the epitome of their friendship, and it is also one of the few things in Isa’s small piece of the world that can be controlled by himself, but the parting came so suddenly that Isa was not prepared for it, and he could only swallow the bitter fruit of his unsuccessful search for the lamb. But the parting comes so suddenly that Isa is not prepared for it, and he has no choice but to swallow the bitter fruit of his unsuccessful search for the sheep.
The film presents many “first partings”, and whether or not the audience is looking at the changes in the world from the children’s point of view, they have to admit that there will be countless partings in the future, and that the teenager’s troubles are just a warm-up, “There will be many more of them in the future! “.
In “A First Farewell”, some people see nostalgia, some see change, some see beautiful scenery, and some see the pain that life must go through ……
For me, this solidly shot, gently paced film is not only a resting place for memories of my hometown, but also a contemplation of the current reality. Since parting will always come unexpectedly, we should perhaps learn to accept it and get along with it sooner rather than later.
After all, this parting is too long, and this kind of parting, once is enough.
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