Zhao Fei
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Best Cinematography
Cinematographer, The Volunteers: The Battle of Life and Death
Jury Citation
The jury presents Best Cinematography to The Volunteers: The Battle of Life and Death in recognition of its systematic breakthrough in the visual aesthetics of war. The film builds a complete, complex and carefully considered visual grammar that serves as a key support for the narrative, with inventive choices in every technical aspect: fast and slow camera movement, warm and cool colour, light and dark.
The Volunteers: The Battle of Life and Death: Synopsis
The film focuses on the Battle of Cheorwon. In May 1951, the 63rd Army of the Chinese People's Volunteers, having just finished a month of continuous fighting, was ordered to the Cheorwon battlefield to face four divisions of the "United Nations Command" head-on. The Volunteers fought a bloody battle and finally forced the enemy to the negotiating table. To complete their mission, the soldiers of the 189th Division of the 63rd Army broke into small units, each turning himself into a nail fixed firmly in position. On the battalion's position, battalion political instructor Li Xiang (Zhu Yilong) vows "not one more step back" and holds the line to the death. Amid the gunfire, Li Moyin (Xin Baiqing) and his family of three are reunited on the battlefield. A key and a reunion meal in the trenches bring this family, separated by war, even closer. To build better weapons for the new China, returned military engineering expert Wu Benzheng (Zhu Yawen) enters the battlefield under the protection of Zhang Xiaoheng (Ou Hao). As his bodyguard, Zhang Xiaoheng firmly believes that protecting Wu Benzheng means protecting the country's future. Sun Xing (Chen Feiyu) and Yang Sandi (Zhang Youhao) also arrive at Cheorwon. Together, all the officers and soldiers of the 63rd Army build an unbreakable "Iron Great Wall" on the Cheorwon battlefield!