A review of the translations of the title of the beautiful film by the Chinese director Ruijun Li can already be an indication of how the film was distributed and received in the various cinema markets. Using Google Translate I found out that the exact translation of the Chinese title would be ‘Cloud of Dust’. In the English market and at film festivals it was distributed with the title with biblical resonance ‘Return to Dust‘. The French, however, chose the title ‘Le retour des hirondelles’, while the Italians distributed it as ‘Terra e polvere’. Finally, in Israel, the title chosen for distribution in Hebrew is ‘habait shelanu’ (‘our house’). In China the film enjoyed quite a lot of success until the authorities decided to stop distributing it in theaters and on streaming, probably considering that the image of the Chinese village, the radical transformations that the traditional society goes through and their impact on the common people is too bleak. The film thus joins a long collection of good films, some even masterpieces, which were and are made in countries where strict censorship operates, and which – without directly criticizing the political regime or the authorities – are too uncomfortable in their content to be distributed to their own audiences. We have seen such films in the Soviet Union or communist Czechoslovakia, in Iran and now it is China’s turn. The consolation is that if historical precedent is anything to go by, years from now a film like this will have a chance to be rediscovered and appreciated for its worth, not only artistically but also as a document of the era portrayed on screen.
‘Return to Dust‘ is first and foremost a love story, one of the most unusual, one that perhaps should never have happened. The story takes place in a Chinese village from which those who can leave do it to seek their fortune in the city, and those who remain struggle with the rapacity of the capitalists and the bureaucracy of the authorities. Guying is a woman past her prime, she once suffered an accident that left her crippled and unable to bear children. Youtie is the poorest man in the village, he has only a donkey and his hands to earn a living. The families decide to marry them off – something related to the traditional marriage order in the families. Man and woman find themselves together and begin to discover each other, share their past traumas and sufferings, work to survive and bring joy to each other. Hard work brings them, if not prosperity, at least the ability to withstand the blows of fate and the malice of those around them. Three times the houses in which they dwell, one built with their own hands, will turn to dust. The typology of the ‘stupidly good’ character to which they both belong is developed in the direction of the affection of one towards the other.
Ruijun Li also wrote the screenplay for this film, and the production team was local, recruited from among his villagers and family members, in the very places where the story takes place. Many of the actors are amateurs and play their own lives on screen. Amazing how this locally made film manages to bring up with delicacy and an aesthetic approach that is at the same time realistic and expressive some major themes, significant for the whole of China and even beyond its borders: the hardships faced by the peasant class in a rapidly industrializing society, the contrast between economic capitalism and the traditional way of life, the lack of any social safety net to protect the most disadvantaged, the place of women in the family and society. But it is the personal story that dominates Ruijun Li‘s film. Is love possible in a system where matrimonial relationships are imposed? The film is an elegy for a disappearing world, but – with all the combination of dark themes and all the tragic events that happen on the screen – it is unexpectedly tonic and optimistic, and this is primarily due to the bright, simple and beautiful characters of the two protagonists. I must mention the names of the actors: Renlin Wu and Hai-Qing. Beautifully filmed and well acted, ‘Return to Dust‘ is one of the best Chinese films I’ve seen in years. It’s also very different from all the others, a proof that Chinese cinema can successfully tackle genres other than heroic historical epics or martial arts action films.