□ Liu Kexin

　　If you're tired of all the stylized twists and turns in movies, you can go and watch the movie "Hidden in the Dust" that is currently being released.

　　"Hidden in the Dust" is the sixth feature film of young director Li Ruijun, which is currently in theaters.

Although there are not many movies, it has a good reputation. Since the beginning of 2022, this is the only movie in the theater with a Douban score of more than 8 points, and it continues to rise.

The film will be shortlisted for the main competition unit of the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival in 2022, and it is also the only Chinese-language film shortlisted.

　　Two people "abandoned" by society meet, and through hard work day in and day out, they are rewarded from the land.

They are obviously only pursuing the minimum survival, but they discovered love and light in the process-director Li Ruijun told such a story in 133 minutes.

　　Cao Guiying, who left the root of the disease and could urinate at any time, and Ma Youtie, who was stubborn, honest and disliked, faced with the representatives of these two so-called "marginal" minority groups, the director did not use their weakness to arouse the audience's compassion and compassion Sympathy, but to put the fate of the two people on the ground, to set off the preciousness of the two souls to warm each other with the dislike and incomprehension of others; Entering the suffering encountered in the world, thus arousing the audience's "sublime" viewing experience.

This is one of the reasons why the film is so touching to the audience.

　　"What can the wheat say when being blown by the wind? What can the wheat say when it is pecked by the flying sparrows? What can the wheat say when it is eaten by my own donkey? It is cut by the sickle in summer, what can the wheat say? What?" The film uses a lot of brush and ink to express this kind of being "thrown" into the world, forced to endure difficulties, but still maintaining a simple and kind quality.

Ma Youtie is the epitome of many farmers in China.

As a rural-themed film, "Hidden in the Dust" did not focus on group portrait description or grand narrative, but chose to show the life of rural couples, which was more successful.

The director said in an interview that Chinese farmers are never a number, they are all individual individuals.

What he shows is also the stories of these individuals.

　　I believe that viewers who have watched the film will be impressed by the details: hatching chicks in a cardboard box with lights; using wooden models to make mud bricks, each mud brick depends on both hands; using five grains of wheat to print on the hands A flower, so that it won't get lost... These details all come from the life experience of director Li Ruijun.

　　Li Ruijun grew up in Gaotai County, Gansu Province. The films he directed, "Old Donkey's Head", "Tell Them, I'm Riding a White Crane", "Home in a Place with Lush Water and Grass" and "Hidden in the Dust", are all about this land. story.

In the creation, this piece of land is Li Ruijun's inexhaustible creative source.

He also uses the lens to express the land and the relationship between the land and people to the best of his ability.

All the well-designed camera language and the deliberately undulating storylines seem insignificant in the face of the land.

　　The tone of the whole film is simple, with only two subtleties.

The first is Hai Qing's handling of the details in the performance, and the second is the few scenes at the beginning of the film.

This film only uses one professional actor, namely Hai Qing who plays Cao Guiying, a peasant woman.

As a professional actor, Hai Qing has some traces of performance in the film.

In order to play this role well, Haiqing went to Huaqiangzi Village, where the film was filmed, in advance, and spent ten months with the villagers doing farm work and feeding the animals.

However, there is a difference between having a peasant play the peasant and having an actor play the peasant.

How to respond with facial expressions at the right time, and when to shake hands, Haiqing's "smartness" in her performance is also her quality as a professional actress.

　　The second place is the design of the lines at the beginning.

At the beginning of the film, all the backgrounds must be explained, so that every word that everyone says is carefully designed: Cao Guiying fell to the root of the disease, and Ma Youtie has worked in the third brother's house for decades, although Ma Youtie's The third brother and the two families regard them as burdensome and eagerly hope that they can form a new family and leave... The director wants to convey too much information, which leads to the slow rhythm at the beginning of the film. If the rhythm of the whole film can be smoother , presumably the viewing experience will be better.

　　But the flaws do not hide the truth, "Hidden in the Dust" is indeed a rare good film in 2022.

As director Li Ruijun said, I hope audiences who like this kind of film can go into the cinema and support this film.

After all, the audience's choice is market-oriented, and our choice determines what we can see.