Chinese musician's wartime friendship with Kazakh composer captivates movie audiences

Despite the ongoing pandemic, The Composer－a biographical portrait of Xian Xinghai, one of China's greatest composers－has garnered great acclaim in Kazakhstan, the country where Xian spent the last five years in his life, according to the movie's producer Shen Jian.

The movie, the first China-Kazakhstan coproduction, was inspired by a speech President Xi Jinping delivered at Nazarbayev University during his visit to Kazakhstan in September 2013. In that speech, he mentioned Xian's friendship with Kazakh composer Bakhitzhan Baykadamov during the turbulent wartime of the early 1940s.

The movie, with Hu Jun playing the Chinese composer and Yuan Quan as the protagonist's wife, was shot in China, Kazakhstan and Russia and includes 20,000 people in the production. Two years of research preceded the filming.

The movie tells of Xian being assigned to make a trip to the then Soviet Union in 1940 to compose the score of a documentary about China's revolutionary hub Yan'an and the Eighth Route Army. His work is disrupted by the German invasion of the Soviet Union the following year, resulting in him being stranded in Almaty during a failed attempt to return home. With the help of Baykadamov, Xian, then struggling with poverty and hunger, is taken in to reside in the house of Baykadamov's sister and manages to continue his artistic creation in his final years before passing away at a Moscow hospital in 1945.

The movie was released in China and Kazakhstan in 2019. After being screened in movie theaters, it has been frequently broadcast in Kazakhstan over the past three years on six television channels, including Astana TV and El Arna, in Kazakhstan.

"The in-person cultural exchange of Chinese and Kazakh artists was halted by the pandemic. Thanks to Kazakh television channels' frequent broadcasting, the movie has seen its highest rating reach 9 percent for a time, making it one of the most popular international coproductions in Kazakhstan," said Shen, adding that it has become a significant work to enhance the friendship between the two countries.

In China, the movie has also received high recognition, exemplified by it being selected to open the 9th Beijing International Film Festival. It has been broadcast many times on China Movie Channel, the country's most influential TV channel dedicated to movies.