The Return of the Swallows ***
de Li Ruijun
Chinese film, 2 h 13
Curious fate than that of this film presented in competition in Berlin in 2021. Censored for the first time by the Chinese authorities, it was released in theaters a few months later with a modified ending, before being suddenly withdrawn from the screens due to its success. audience. There is however nothing subversive at first sight in this story of two beings marginalized and despised by their families, who will love each other and build a home, in a rural China in the process of disappearing. Extolling the virtues of hard work and simplicity, anchored in age-old traditions and a certain relationship with Mother Earth, it seems far removed from the production of the new wave of Chinese cinema, accustomed to festivals.
The rapid urbanization of the country and the displacement of populations are located off-screen, evoked in the detour of a scene where the owner of an abandoned house returns to authorize its destruction and thus receive the government bonus. Far, very far from the preoccupations of the youngest of the Ma brothers, who lives to the rhythm of the seasons and the harvests, in the company of his donkey. A marriage arranged by their two families to get rid of him binds him to Cao Guiying, a young woman handicapped because of the ill-treatment suffered in her childhood. From this improbable union will be born a moving love story, to which the director Li Ruijun brings all the delicacy of his cinema. Away from modernity, this couple living in great precariousness finds their happiness in a simple existence and a mutual affection, which goes without words but manifests itself with gestures of incredible tenderness. The filmmaker films the passage of time and the major stages of a life, according to the work in the fields. Contrary to the ongoing destruction and this “new rural environment” touted by the regime. “I wanted to preserve a trace of these simple rural existences and pay homage to this land which nourished my soul and remains my main source of inspiration”, explains the director.
Li Ruijun, who shoots all of his films in his hometown, Gaotai, along with his family and friends, got in tune with his characters for this shoot. He actually built the farm and grew the crops until they were harvested, spreading the filming over seven months in the midst of the Covid pandemic. The result is a striking naturalism, imbued with a nostalgia for a world destined for destruction, and with it its moral values. “Everything in its place,” Ma repeats when, when prosperity comes, he goes around to his neighbors to settle his debts and come to terms with himself. Far from the current trend of Asian cinema and its hyper-sophisticated constructions, his film seduces by the purity of its narration and the feelings expressed in it.
