The Chinese director Xusong Zheng introduced his film A Long Way Home, which is part in the Documentary Film Competition of the 48th Moscow International Film Festival.
The story focuses on a young man named Pan Zhaode, who lives in a village on the banks of the Yangtze River. He loves his job at the local distillery. From the fields to the distillery, and then to his phone screen, and his personality gradually changes. His main challenge is to find a work/family balance. Every day he goes to the distillery and back home, and he also often visits hospitals to see his parents. An elderly father, a mother with dementia, a wife who left him, and two young daughters – this is the reality he must live with. The hardships in one man’s life are intertwined with the issues of the era. Will the main character, a simple villager, be able to cope with his difficulties in life and to adapt to the changes taking place around him?
Xusong Zheng: "I was born and raised in a village myself, so while filming this movie, I returned to almost the exact same place I left 17 years ago. I was very curious to see how people at my age who stayed in the village live there, and how people of different generations live there in general. I liked our main character for his optimistic nature. Of course, he didn’t know that we would take this film outside of China, and he was amazed that it was selected for the festival. Filming became a part of his life; he didn’t see it as acting for the camera, but simply lived with us filming him".
The story focuses on a young man named Pan Zhaode, who lives in a village on the banks of the Yangtze River. He loves his job at the local distillery. From the fields to the distillery, and then to his phone screen, and his personality gradually changes. His main challenge is to find a work/family balance. Every day he goes to the distillery and back home, and he also often visits hospitals to see his parents. An elderly father, a mother with dementia, a wife who left him, and two young daughters – this is the reality he must live with. The hardships in one man’s life are intertwined with the issues of the era. Will the main character, a simple villager, be able to cope with his difficulties in life and to adapt to the changes taking place around him?
Xusong Zheng: "I was born and raised in a village myself, so while filming this movie, I returned to almost the exact same place I left 17 years ago. I was very curious to see how people at my age who stayed in the village live there, and how people of different generations live there in general. I liked our main character for his optimistic nature. Of course, he didn’t know that we would take this film outside of China, and he was amazed that it was selected for the festival. Filming became a part of his life; he didn’t see it as acting for the camera, but simply lived with us filming him".