ROAD TO CHANGE

In 2017, when Po Luo, a resident of Shawa village in the mountainous Fugong county, Nujiang Lisu autonomous prefecture, Yunnan province, found out that his refrigerator had problems, no technician was able to visit his home. Nobody wanted to hike for at least four hours on a round trip.

Feeling helpless, he carried the fridge, about 50 kilograms, on his back, going downhill. He rested on the way for some time, spending four hours to get it to a repair shop. It took him another four hours to carry it back home, and then he had blisters all over his back.

The story is recounted in Rooting, a documentary that shows the experience of people in Shawa who welcomed a better life after coming out of absolute poverty. Produced by the publicity department of the Communist Party of China Yunnan Provincial Committee, China Agricultural Film and Television Center and Yunnan Media Group, the film was released nationwide on Thursday.

Ning Qiwen, director of China Agricultural Film and Television Center, says: "Against the backdrop of China's poverty alleviation efforts, the film shows the touching story of how a small village of the Nu ethnic group got rid of poverty and changed its destiny.

"It also reflects the journey of more than 98 million poor people living in rural areas of China overcoming poverty and records changing times."

Crew members spent four years living in Shawa, which is at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters on Biluo Snow Mountain, to shoot footage for the documentary. Chai Hongfang, general director of the production, recalls her early attempts to reach the village in 2017.

"I used to believe that as a veteran I had good health, but the first time I tried to go to Shawa, I was too tired to reach the destination. I had never considered there could be some villages in China that were so difficult to visit," says Chai.

When she finally reached the village on her second attempt many days later, she saw splendid scenery. "I saw mist around the remote mountains, paddy fields gleamed in the sun. Children chased after and played with each other, and villagers labored in the fields, wiping their sweat on the forehead from time to time," says Chai.

For several hundred years, Shawa's villagers had only a mountain road linking them to the outside world.

Like Po finding it difficult to repair his fridge, the film shows villagers having problems selling their agricultural produce and a sick woman having to be carried downhill on a stretcher by young male adults of the village to see a doctor.

"There are rivers and fields in the village, so people can feed themselves by farming, but they could not develop since there was no good road," says Chai.

Crew members recorded how desperate people were for a new road, and how it was finally built by the local government. The local government also built new apartments in a settlement at the foot of the mountain, asking locals to move there for a more convenient life. Some moved and some stayed in their old place, but their lives became different when the new road was completed in 2021.

"Now, it only takes about 30 minutes to reach the village from the foot of the mountain by car," says Chai.

Local products can be sold in other places, and tourism is being developed in the area, with communal facilities to be built in the future.

Robert Walker, a professor at the School of Sociology, Beijing Normal University, who is also a fellow of the British Academy of Social Sciences and the Royal Society of Arts, says: "The images are so real and full of colors and emotions. They are so beautiful showing people in the landscape. You can see emotions, like fear, anxiety, compassion, hope and happiness, from the film."

Walker highlights crew members' efforts to show children of the village. "What I like most about the film is the central place of children. The children are not regimented in school but outside playing with each other, adding a spirit to the community," says Walker.

Chai says before attending primary school, children in Shawa had no chance of leaving the village to go to town. "Since the mountain road was too difficult to trek on, children had to be carried by their parents downhill. It took an adult five to six hours to make a round trip, and with a child on their back the time often doubled. As a result, children seldom had a chance to go outside until they could go on their own," says Chai.

Since there was no kindergarten in the village, children played every day when they were young, and sometimes were taught to read poems by Zhu Yun, a soldier from the prefecture who helped with poverty alleviation in Shawa, the documentary shows.

Chai says, the children's destinies, along with the development of their village, is gradually changing.

More than 10 folk songs from Nujiang are used in the film as background music. "The Nujiang area is a treasure trove of folk songs, and we used such songs to render people's emotions," says Liu Hengzhi, the sound designer of the production.

According to Liu Heng, vice-president of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the documentary depicts the real life of people in a corner of China in a simple style.

"On the one hand, it reflects a lofty social vision … No matter how successful you are, you need to pay attention to those who may not have so much wealth.

"On the other hand, we may have many artistic styles, but it is most important to be sincere and simple. I can see such a spirit in the filmmakers of this work," he adds.