MWFF 2013: The Ferry

The Ferry

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director : Shi Wei

Screenwriter : Shengsheng H. D'après/Based on: The Ferry. De/By: Shengsheng He

Cinematographer : Wang Yang

Editor : Wang Qiuyue, Zhang Sheng

Cast : Zhou Guangda

Music : Wang Yuanping

Film production and Sales : Peng Yanfang, Qiang Chen, Hubei Film Studio, 139 Wangsongyuan Road, Jianghan District, Wuhan, Hubei Prov. (Chine), tél.: (+86-27) 8548 89 03, chengiang1963@163.com Ventes/Sales: China Film Promotion International, Room 305, Red Chamber, 25 Xinwai Street, Beijing 100082 (Chine), lucy.cfpi@gmail.com

OFFICIAL FILM SYNOPSIS

"Deep in the Enshi mountains, the Tian family live near an old ferry. To keep a commitment made by their forebears, three generations of the Tian family have helped people cross the river without collecting a penny for the ride. Using a wooden punt, they ferry the villagers across the Dasha river which divides the village. A widower in his 60s, his son away outside the village, Tian Huai’en is the third generation of the family to work the ferry. These years Huai’en has been living alone in a small stone hut built by the villagers, spending every day and night with his ferry, living a lonely and monotonous life. One day, his son Chuanjie takes a break from his job to visit his sick dad. He does not understand why Huai’en insists on running a free ferry. To explain, his father recounts how when Chuanjie’s great grandfather and his family came as refugees, the villagers sheltered them. The Tians began providing the free ferry as a token of their gratitude, and a tradition was established. Now Chuanjie wonders whether he should relieve his father. After spending his vacation rowing the ferry, Chuanjie realizes its significance. As his contribution to its future, he decides to save up and replace the wooden punt with a motorboat. Will the tradition continue?"

The film, based on a true story, features superb photography of the natural, mountainous, rural setting. It was filmed in Hubei Province in China. The film skilfully portrays the poetry of the running river, the sounds the water or rain makes, the harmony of colours and forms. But most importantly, it stresses the traditional family and simply human values like, for instance, honour expressed in keeping a promises once made from one generation through the succeeding generations, as well as the honour and pride in one’s work skilfully performed - a free service provided to the local community.

The film deals with the relationship between a son, who arrives for a 10 day holiday from a busy concrete filled city, and his father, who lives in the heart of nature and talks to the water and the river, across which he ferries people back and forth many times per day. At first, their is a conflict between the two, but as the film progresses they both come to understand and respect each other.

At the Montreal World Film Festival 2013 Press Conference, the film's director Shi Wei has stated that he had based his film on the ancient Chinese way of seeing the world, of finding the middle way: there are the heavens and the earth, and in the middle their are the people, and the goal is to harmonize all those spheres of existence.

The film clearly shows that no on-screen violence or portrayal of sex is required to make a film that could make us reconnect to many of our common sensibilities and emotions, to our humanity, love and respect.