There
are ten families with four surnames who have lived for generations in this tiny
mountainous village. None of them talk very much—probably because they are out
of practice. It is a hard life, but native-born filmmaker Xiao Xiao cannot help
feel nostalgic for it when he documents the daily toils of his grandmother and their
fellow villagers in Turtle Rock (trailer here), which screens
during this year’s First Look at MoMI.
Turtle
Rock village was named for a distinctly shaped rock formation. It is indeed
picturesque, at least for outsiders. Villagers still work the land as best they
can, but they are experiencing diminishing returns. Granted, this is the last
site readers should go to for geologic analysis, but it looks pretty obvious
Turtle Rock has some severe soil erosion problems.
Yet,
despite the scarred landscape and hardscrabble homes, Turtle Rock is absolutely arresting in visual terms. Xiao Xiao
(serving as his own cinematographer, editor, and sound guy) frames some stunning
images, in stark black-and-white. The way he marries them with the natural,
ambient sounds truly makes Turtle Rock an
immersive film. He really puts you there in that distant corner of Hunan.
However,
there is not a lot of drama going on in this documentary, just a lot of work
and chores (quite a bit of which seems to involve pipes). Frankly, Xiao Xiao and
“co-director”-producer Lin Lin will likely challenge many viewers’ conception
of cinema. Just one look will make you respect his work, but it can be tiring.
At one point, Xiao Xiao follows a villager silently trudging up a hill carrying
a heavy bag of rice on his shoulders. It is an image that perfectly represents Turtle Rock’s subject matter and viewing
experience.
Clearly,
Turtle Rock is exactly the sort of village that has been overlooked by the
Party and the PRC government, but the film itself almost entirely avoids
addressing politics. Yet, there is one telling moment when villagers notice a broadside
posted by the district Party enforcer, denouncing 16 unfortunates from
neighboring villages, who had been “discredited.” Going to the trouble of shaming
them in Turtle Rock seems like serious overkill.
Xiao
Xiao’s talent is conspicuously evident, but if he maintains the strict aesthetic
approach of Turtle Rock, he will remain a filmmaker for festival
audiences. Watching his film is the closest thing to most of us will ever get to
visiting Turtle Rock, even if the village continues to persist in its current
state, suspended outside of time. Recommended for patrons of tactile, observational
documentaries, Turtle Rock screens
tomorrow (1/13), as part of First Look at MoMI.
