Berlin

A FIRST FAREWELL

Drama/Youth ︱ China ︱ 2018 ︱ 86 minutes ︱ Uyghur/Mandarin
Director: WANG Lina

The first international Uyghur film from Xinjiang, China by a homegrown female director.

The directorial debut from Xinjiang’s Lina Wang is a poem to her hometown, portraying a Muslim farm boy’s relationship with his deaf-mute mother, his friendship with his sweetheart girl, and his parting from them. 

"That Wang wanted to craft a cinematic tribute to her hometown is especially evident in A First Farewell’s wide, crisp, eye-catching visuals." － Screen

Berlinale Festival Screening

Feb 12  09:30 @ Zoo Palast 1

Feb 13  12:30 @ Filmtheater am Friedrichshain

Feb 14  10:00 @ Zoo Palast 2

Feb 17  11:00 @ CinemaxX 1

TRAILER

SYNOPSIS

Deep in northwestern China, surrounded by cotton fields and desert, lies the Uyghur village that Isa calls home. When he is not at school or working on his parents‘ farmyard, he spends carefree days with his friends – until the outside world starts forcing him to say one goodbye after another. With Isa’s mother‘s illness placing an increasing burden on the family, his father considers putting her in a care home, far away from the village. Isa‘s best friend Kalbinur is getting bad grades, and is about to be sent to a faraway Chinese school. And then the little  lamb, which the two children had been looking after with devotion ever since it was born, disappears. Captured in naturalistic imagery, winter closes in on Isa‘s world.