Beyond the Mulan River

HomeGolden Rooster Films Project MarketProject CollectionBeyond the Mulan River

Creative Statement

If anything is unforgettable, it must be childhood memories. Through those memories I have come to care about the world of children, about the joys, sorrows and anger deep in their hearts, and I want to record all of it on film. Who can heal our memories? Who can rescue what our hearts need? In the world of childhood, who is right, and who is wrong?

Synopsis

A family has two children, Saicuo and Saidan. One day after school, an old woman in her eighties tells them a fable called "Beyond the Mulan River", which leaves a deep mark on them. Their father, Caidan, is a gambler who has even lost his wife's family heirloom bracelet. Unable to bear his behavior, their mother goes back to her parents' home. The children hear the harsh words she leaves behind: if the bracelet is not returned, she will never set foot in this house again. From then on their father drinks heavily. What happens to the family hurts the two children deeply. So the brother and sister decide to cross to the other side of the river to find the legendary wish-granting dragon tree and get their mother's bracelet back.

Genre:

Drama, Children's

Release Date:

2022-07-28 (Chinese Mainland)

Selection Year and Section:

Top 9, Work-in-Progress Section, 2022

Director/Screenwriter:

Detsa Kyi

Starring:

Saicuo / Saidanjie

Producer:

Zhongji Sonam Gyal

Executive Producer:

Xide Nima

Production Company:

Qinghai Khawachen Film and Television Culture Communication Co., Ltd.

About the Director/Screenwriter

Detsa Kyi: Director and screenwriter of the micro-films The Child Under the Big Tree, Fuman's Grassland, The Model and The Story of Tashi's Family; director of the documentaries Hometown and The Mani Stone City. Awards include the Jury Grand Prize and a Best Feature nomination at the Chongqing Youth Film Art Exhibition; the Story Documentary Award at the Beijing International Micro Film Festival; third prize for fiction at the Hainan Youth Positive Energy Micro Film Festival; the Grand Prize for fiction at the International College Student Micro Film Festival; Best Children's Film at the Shenzhen International Micro Film Festival; Best Actor, plus nominations for Best Director and Best Feature, at the Chinese College Students Visual Arts Festival; and Best Screenplay and a Best Actor nomination at the Weiying Women National Micro Film Festival.

About the Producer

Sonam Gyal: Credits include Tharlo, Wangdrak's Rain Boots and Little Crane Drolma. He has worked as an independent producer of low-budget films since 2015 and is general manager of Beijing Khawachen Film and Television Culture Communication Co., Ltd. He was production manager of Wangdrak's Rain Boots, selected for the Generation competition of the Berlin International Film Festival, and producer of Little Crane Drolma. He was chief producer of the films Drolma's Necklace, A Love Story of Arou, Youth Past, Meeting You Again, Sanglo, Wind, The Stream and The Child Under the Big Tree. These films have won Best Film, Jury Grand Prize and other awards in China and abroad. Gu Wen: Holds a master's degree in multimedia visual communication from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, USA, and a bachelor's degree from the Shanghai Theatre Academy. She teaches film and television studies at Shanghai Jian Qiao University and is a doctoral candidate at Mahidol University, Thailand, researching Tibetan visual culture. She was a reporter on the publicity team for The Voice of China, Season 1. Her 2021 screenplay The Last Cigarette received young screenwriter incubation support from the Shanghai Culture and Arts Fund. She has managed project production at an international advertising agency, led groups on study visits to Lincoln Center in New York and the Yale School of Drama, and taken part in cultural and artistic exchanges in Europe, the United States and Southeast Asia.

About the Production Company

Qinghai Khawachen Film and Television Culture Communication Co., Ltd.: Founded in 2005, a film and television company covering development, shooting, production and distribution. Focused on presenting and promoting Tibetan culture, it invests in, produces and distributes films, TV series and documentaries mainly on Tibetan subjects, and develops and invests in projects jointly with film and television organizations in China and abroad. Over nearly ten years it has achieved notable results. To date it has co-presented the films Wangdrak's Rain Boots and Sending the Crane, and has taken part in films including Tharlo, Jinpa and Balloon.

Logline

A Tibetan children's film that looks with warmth at two children who have lost their mother's care as they pursue their dream in an innocent, even fanciful way.