It’s not hard to see why The return of the swallows displeased the Chinese authorities who had it bannedas it is easy to predict how much its poetic beauty will seduce moviegoers from free countries.
Director Li Ruijun shows this rural world that we thought had disappeared and that the Chinese Communist Party of Xi Jinping would like to cover with the veil of oblivion. Ma Youtie (he is played by the filmmaker’s uncle Wu Renlin) et Cao Guiying (Hai-Qing) are the two left behind from their small village. He is content with a miserable life near his donkey in an abandoned house; she, weakened by an illness, mistreated by her family, expects nothing from existence.
We decide to marry them, which saves everyone from paying for an expensive wedding. Accustomed to lowering their eyes and bowing their heads, these two pure beings will recognize each other and, little by little, lean once morest each other and discover a tenderness that they did not know. But in this world where innocence is a rare commodity, greed and calculation being law, their little happiness is likely to burst in flight.
Harvest time
Li Ruijun shot The return of the swallows in real time, from March to October 2020… the time to sow and reap the fruit of the work of his team and himself. Because they shot the film by working the land as the hero of the film and his companion were supposed to do.
It’s a movie first aesthetically beautiful but also full of tenderness and poetic gestures. Above all, it is work that opens our eyes a little wider to the dramatic consequences of Chinese policy… the real one, not that of military parades and grand speeches. In China, The return of the swallows was banned on September 30. He needs your support.
