On October 7, young director Wang Xuebo (@Sean王学博, 1984) brought his debut film Knife In the Clear Water (清水里的刀子) to the 21st Busan International Film Festival (BIFF). The film will compete for an award in the “new currents” (新浪潮) category.
Knife In the Clear Water is also set to screen a the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) in November of this year. Together with Busan, it is one of the biggest and most influential film festivals in Asia.
A Story of Hui Muslims
The film Knife In the Clear Water tells a story about Hui people (a Chinese Muslim ethnic group) living in China’s Xihaigu region in the southern part of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region – an extremely dry region, and one of the worst habitation for humans according to United Nations World Food programme.
In the film, the elderly Hui farmer Ma Zishan has just lost his wife. For the funeral ceremony, his son proposes to sacrifice the old bull that has been with the family for years. Though unwilling, Ma Zishan agrees as the bull is old, his wife deserves to be honored, and their guests need to be fed. But the farmer struggles to part with the bull, and in the days leading up to the ceremony, the old man is troubled by the thought of his own death and seems to learn something from the bull in its last days before being slaughtered.
The themes of life and death and the concept of cleanliness in the life of Hui Muslims play a major role in the movie, and are addressed through oil-painting-like scenes.
The film is an adaptation of a novel by the same name written by Shi Shuqing, which has won the 2nd Luxun Literary Prize (鲁迅文学奖) – a top literary prize in China.
Decade-Long Project
From a budding idea to an award nomination, Knife In the Clear Water has taken Wang Xuebo almost a decade to complete. In 2007, Wang first read the novel Knife in the Clear Water. Deeply moved, he decided to turn it into a short film as his graduation project.
In 2009, Wang and his team went to live in Xihaigu for 10 months. During this time, Wang observed the culture and customs of the Hui people and made 3 short documentary films which he called the ‘Xihaigu trilogy’ (西海固三部曲). The film Knife In the Clear Water was developed from its 30-minute version in the trilogy.
Throughout the film-making process, Wang often faced challenges in dealing with local culture and customs. Among other things, it was not easy to find actors, as many villagers believed that acting is forbidden by the Koran.
Casting Yang Shengcang for the role of Ma Zishan was also difficult, as according to local customs, elderly people are expected to engage in religious practices instead of mundane affairs.
Wang was mindful about the local customs and traditions. “I was afraid to do something wrong when talking to villagers,” Wang said in an interview with Cinematic (奇遇电影), “Since my co-directors were all experienced in these matters, I asked them to establish relationships… to avoid miscommunication. Disagreement is quite common between director and actors. I especially now know how to keep this in check.”
Throughout the filming process, Wang developed a good relationship with the movie’s local actors. On the day of the premiere, Wang posted on his Sina Weibo account: “I am really happy to see the two actors traveling abroad and standing on an international stage for the first time!”
What is significant about Knife In the Clear Water is its truthful narrative of the life of Hui Muslims on their own soil. Although it is rare for Hui Muslims to be represented on screen in China, it seems that the younger generation is making an effort to change this.
Wang Xuebo’s earlier work Bangke from the Village of Mansi (满寺村的邦克, 2008) is a documentary of life in the Xihaigu region. In 2015, Ma Yulong (马誉龙) from the Beijing Film Academy (北京电影学院) produced Hasang (哈桑), a short film about the devout faith of Ningxia Muslims, as his graduation project.
On Chinese social media, many netizens express their appreciation of the novel, and those who have already seen (part of) the film applaud Wang’s work. “It makes me proud,” one commenter says.
“This is a chance for people who are prejudiced against Muslims to see a different side to Muslim culture,” one netizen comments.
-By Diandian Guo
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