Tuesday, April 2nd, 2019, 5:15-7:45pm at the PICT Theater of Research Education and Visualization Environment at the Digital Worlds Institute (624 SW 12th Street, Norman Gym Building, 2nd FL)
Film screening of Red Flowers and Green Leaves (Dir. Liu Miaomiao, 2018, Fiction/96 min/English subtitle/Color)
Shot in a village of the Hui people, an ethnic minority group of Chinese Muslims, Red Flowers and Green Leaves centers around a newlywed couple. Suffering from an incurable and chronic disease associated with epilepsy since born, a young man, Li Gouqing (Gubo), reckons himself as unlikable and has no hope for love and family life. Under the family arrangement and beyond all expectations, he marries a capable and attractive woman, Asheeyen. All of a sudden, two strangers are sharing the same bed without knowing each other’s secret. Confronted with all sorts of challenges in traditional lifestyle, a modern world, and their own identities and problems, will they learn compassion and nourish true love?
Director Liu Miaomiao is a leading figure in the Chinese Fifth Generation filmmakers who have launched and formed the Chinese New Wave. Most importantly, she is the most prominent female Muslim filmmaker in China, who has an incredibly sustainable career path and a diverse body of works from the late 1980s to this day. This recent work, Red Flowers and Green Leaves, exquisitely captures the life of Chinese Muslim in the contemporary society as they struggle with gender, sexual, religious, ethnic, and cultural identities. It is a film that is deeply concerned with the existence of ordinary people, showing in a subtle and realistic light their perseverance and dignity no matter how harsh the life is.
Awards and Nominations:
- 2018 Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, selected entry
- 2018 Trieste Film Festival, selected entry
- 2018 Pingyao Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon International Film Festival, winner: Audience Award-Gala
- 2018 China Film Director’s Guild Awards, nominee: Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Achievement in Directing
- 2019 New Delhi Diorama International Film Festival, winner: the Silver Sparrow for Best International Feature
The film is going to be released and shown in theater nationwide from June 6, 2019.
The lecture is free and open to the public. Questions about the event can be directed to Dr. Xiao, yx241@ufl.edu.