Wen Muye
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Best Directorial Debut
Director, Dying to Survive
Jury Citation
The jury found that in Dying to Survive, director Wen Muye uses a realist approach, with calm, truthful documentary-style storytelling and natural, everyday performances, to explore a serious social issue. With a humorous surface and warm humanistic concern, and with close attention to detail, the film reaches the heart and moves audiences to both laughter and tears.
Dying to Survive: Synopsis
Cheng Yong (Xu Zheng), an ordinary middle-aged man, runs a health-supplement shop; his career has stalled and his marriage has ended. An unexpected visitor, Lü Shouyi (Wang Chuanjun), opens up a new line of work for him: buying medicine in India on behalf of patients. Despite many difficulties, he sees a business opportunity on this "medicine route" and becomes the exclusive agent for an Indian generic drug used to treat chronic myeloid leukemia. While making money, he gets to know several patients and their families: Sihui (Tan Zhuo), who was forced to work as a dancer to save her daughter; Pastor Liu (Yang Xinming), who speaks fluent English with a preacher's accent; and the hot-tempered "Yellow Hair" (Zhang Yu). They go into business together, and as profits multiply, so do the dangers. Officer Cao (Zhou Yiwei), Cheng Yong's former brother-in-law, is ordered to trace the source of the generic drugs, while the fake-drug dealer Zhang Changlin (Wang Yanhui) and the representative of the Swiss patent-holding drug company (Li Naiwen) also have their eyes on him. The business gradually turns into a tug-of-war over redemption. The film is based on the true story of Lu Yong, a chronic myeloid leukemia patient who bought anti-cancer drugs on behalf of other patients.