MWFF 2012: Latitude 52

LATITUDE 52
Montreal World Film Festival

First Films World Competition
2012 / Colour / 97 min / China

PRODUCTION TEAM

Filmmaking : Degena Yun, Leon Du
Scriptwriter : Zheng Xianmin, Zhang Jianjua
Photography : Zhang Hao
Montage : Zhang Jianhua
interpreters : Qi Hang, Wang Zheng, Boris Bedrosov, Fedor Selkin, Ren Shan, Ya Ru, Svetlana Tsvichenko
Production House : Yan Xiaoming, Mu Ren, Ming Zhenjiang, Mailisi Film Co. Ltd., 8-2201 Jian Dian Garden, Wen Hui Yuan North Street, Hai Dian District, Beijing (Chine), tél. & fax: (+86) 10 6225 43 01,dongguiyouxiang@163.com

Official description of the film:

LATITUDE 52 (LAO SHAO QIA)

In the late 1960s, growing ideological tensions between the two most powerful communist nations caused a final split between Soviet Union and China. In the dead of winter, A’ersileng, a young Chinese soldier, arrives at the tense border to man the Chinese watchtower. Under the command of Sergeant He Dazhuang, they watch over the border together, but A’ersileng struggles to adapt to the solitude. After a series of incidents, he is sent out to search the border for Soviet spies. There he stumbles across a love letter sent to Sergei, a Soviet soldier, blown over from the Soviet side. Between A’ersileng and Sergei -- two soldiers guarding two sides of the border, separated by a barbed wire fence, unable to meet or speak -- an unlikely friendship grows. A hidden friendship, so strong, that in the face of danger A’ersileng risks his life rushing across the border to save Sergei. But it is this fated first close encounter that would also to be their last. Years later a female Russian officer comes to China and delves into this faded past...

I met the two Chinese film directors Degena Yun and Leon Du, as well as the Russian actress Svetlana Tsvichenko on the terrace of the Hyatt Regency hotel that hosted the World Film Festival 2012 in Montreal. Leon Du told me that the film’s script was based on the recollections of a former Chinese boarder guard Zhang Xian Min who described many true instances of edgy situations on the Russian – Chinese border, but most interestingly, also true friendships that also developed along the border line during the very strained period of political tensions between the two countries.

The most compelling theme of the movie is the friendship that grows despite the spiked wire fence between the two watchtowers on the opposite sides of the border. Both towers have two solders stationed there for their military duty. The Chinese solders watch the Russian watchtower and minutely check on what the Russian guards are doing, and the Russian solders do the same. They do it day-long, day after day. They watch each other through binoculars, and pretty soon they learn a lot about each other. The two main characters on the opposite sides of the border learn to really like and respect one another, even to the extend that the Chinese solder risks his own life to save the Russian solder's life. During this incident he even disregards the strict rules and crosses over the boarder line.

The film clearly shows that a true friendship and a concern for another human being, even if that person is of a different race and political alliance, will flourish even under the most restrictive and repressive circumstances, and that the artificially created political differences and antagonisms fade in the face of the true human values.

The choice of the actor Qi Hang who portrays the main character -  the Chinese border guard who risks his life - is superb (see his photo above, at the very beginning of this post). He fits the role very well, and is able with his unassuming way of acting to project the humanity aspect into the toughest of the situations. With his performance, he makes a loud and clear statement that at the end all that really counts for us human beings is the humanity in each one of us, and not the political associations or other artificial persuasions that keep us hating and mistrusting each other.

The photo on the left shows  the two directors of the film (Degena Yun in the middle and  Leon Du on the right). To the left of them is the Russian actress Svetlana Tsvichenko who portrays a daughter of the Russian solder whose life was saved by the Chinese border guard. Years later, the character she plays arrives to China to find out all the details about what had happened on that fateful day on the Russian – Chinese border that preserved her father’s life.

Here are two more photos of Svetlana Tsvichenko on the terrace of the Hyatt Regency hotel, Montreal, 2012.

Click on images to enlarge them.

Image at the very top of the article courtesy of MWFF and the director of the film.

All other photos in this article by Nadia Slejskova.

© 2013 Nadia Slejskova