SYNOPSIS

Ten-year-old Wo Tu dreams of having a water pistol like other boys in his village. Even though his father promised, he fails to bring one from the city. But there is one hope for Wo Tu: his dying grandfather assures him to grant him the wish as a ghost. After his death, the old man visits the boy in his dreams, initiating a treasure hunt. Soon, the limits between reality and dream, past and present, become more and more blurred. A portrait of the profound love for the land, across three generations of a family in modern Chinese rural life.



DIRECTOR’S 
BIOGRAPHY   

WANG Xiaoshuai is one of pioneers of Chinese independent film, the winner of French Culture and Art Knight Medal, internationally renowned Chinese film director. During these thirty years of filming, WANG has directed 15 films. His works span different eras, yet consistently reflect a strong social conscience. 

With a strong personal style and humanistic care, the spirit of perseverance and independent creation, WANG Xiaoshuai’s films were shortlisted at the three major international film festivals eight times and nominated for the main competition unit six times. IN LOVE WE TRUST (2008) won the Berlinale Silver Bear for Best Screenplay, BEIJING BICYLE (2001) won the Grand Jury Silver Bear in Competition at the Berlinale, and the Grand Jury Prize for SHANGHAI DREAMS (2005) in the Cannes Main Competition. The latest title SO LONG, MY SON (2019) won two Silver Bears for the Best Actor and Actress at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival, and his debut feature THE DAYS (1993) was collected by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.


 
 

In 2022, THE HOTEL (2022) was selected in the “Contemporary World Cinema” section of the 47th Toronto International Film Festival, the Official Selection of the 17th Roma International Film Festival, and won the Best Director Awards in the 10th Barcelona Asian Film Festival.

In 2021, the online drama series THE PAVILION was released as the first drama of 2023 on IQIYI’s Light On Theater. The series won the Best Writer of the 4th Asia Contents Awards in 2022.

In 2019, the film SO LONG, MY SON was nominated for the Golden Bear Award at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival, also won the Silver Bear Awards for both Best Actor and Actress.

In 2018, the documentary film CHINESE PORTRAIT was selected in the Masters Screening Unit of IDFA Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival, and was collected by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

In 2014, the film RED AMNESIA was nominated for the Golden Lion Award in the Main Competition Unit of the 71st Venice International Film Festival.

In 2010, the film CHONGQING BLUES was nominated for the Golden Palm Award in the Main Competition Unit of the 63rd Cannes International Film Festival, and also was nominated for the Annual Director Award for China Film Directors' Guild.

In 2008, the film IN LOVE WE TRUST won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay and the Special Attention Award at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival.

In 2005, the film SHANGHAI DREAMS won the Grand Jury Prize at the 58th Cannes International Film Festival.

In 2001, the film BEIJING BICYLE won the Grand Jury Silver Bear and the Best New Actor at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival.

In 1999, the film SO CLOSE TO PARADISE was WANG’s first mainstream film, and was selected in the Un Certain Regard Section of the Cannes International Film Festival.

In 1993, WANG’s debut feature THE DAYS was the first independent production film in China, was selected in the Youth Forum Unit of Berlin International Film Festival, and was selected as one of the best 100 films of all time by the BBC.

 
   

1993 - THE DAYS

DONG CHUN DE RI ZI

1996 - FROZEN

JI DU HAN LENG

1999 - SO CLOSE TO PARADISE

BIAN DAN GU NIANG

2001 - BEIJING BICYLE

SHI QI SUI DE DAN CHE

2003 - DRIFTERS

ER DI

2005 - SHANGHAI DREAMS

QING HONG

2008 - IN LOVE WE TRUST

ZUO YOU

2010 - CHONGQING BLUES

RI ZHAO CHONG QING

2011 - 11 FLOWERS

WO SHI YI

2014 - RED AMNESIA

CHUANG RU ZHE

2018 - CHINIESE PORTRAIT

WO DE JING TOU

2019 - SO LONG, MY SON

DI JIU TIAN CHANG

2021 - THE PAVILION

BA JIAO TING MI WU

2022 - THE HOTEL

LV GUAN

COMMENTS OF
THE DIRECTOR   


I believe that a film can and should be a mirror of the world we live in. As a Chinese director, I was born and grew up on the land, experiencing and witnessing its changes. I was born at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. My fate has been following the ups and downs of this country’s fate. Most of the films I directed before are related to these changes. Before shooting “Wo Tu”, I had been observing the distorted state of the society and looking into its roots. Of course, there are many

threads. The influence can be traced to traditional culture, political system, and international environment, and inevitably from lack of faith. In addition, a manifestation cannot be ignored: private ownership of land and property is replaced by the state or collective. In this ethnic group without private property, the sense of unease and insecurity accumulates yearly, causing the entire people to act like headless flies, and money worship is prevalent - only by grasping money can people gain a temporary sense of security. So, how and when did all this start? This is also the starting point of the film “Wo Tu”.


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This is a huge proposition impossible to convey thoroughly in one film, but it is enough to trigger some discussions and thoughts if it’s released. To touch on this subject, the Land Reform Movement is inescapable. I personally think it is the most critical point in China’s history after 1949, not inferior to the well-known Cultural Revolution. I didn’t know how to touch it with a film for a long time until I saw Li Shijiang’s short story “Trick of Grandpa’s Ghost.” The scenes it described fit so well with my experience in the relationship between dreams and reality. Dreams can take you anywhere, and you can’t go back to the world in your dreams when you wake up in reality. Sometimes, you will think like Zhuangzi with his dream of the butterfly: which one is real? What’s more impressive is that you may have only a few seconds to enter the dream and have already experienced life, ageing, sickness and death. The passion after reading the story drove me. In a very short time, I have conceived a timeline with broken and interrupted events of the Land Reform Movement, using a few disrupted moments to present the historical scenes from decades ago in a film. For most Chinese, especially the younger generation, even though it has profoundly influenced Chinese lives, this period of China is chaotic and disorderly, just like the fleeting time fragments in this movie, and it is difficult to distinguish between true and false.


Wo Tu is a ten-year-old child; he is a blank sheet of paper; occasionally, I feel that he is myself. I was born in 1966, and I had not experienced China before that personally. I involve myself from the descriptions in books and the oral narrations of the elders. I rely on them to bring myself into that history, just like what Grandpa did in the movie. In Chinese culture, we believe that longing for the deceased will bring them to our dreams; in this way, we know their wishes. In the meantime, the deceased who miss children in the world will also visit them in their dreams. Therefore, the dreams have a double meaning in the movie: whether Wo Tu dreams of grandpa or grandpa gives Wo Tu a dream? Just like Grandpa’s line: I dreamed that my grandson dreamed of me. It’s his longing for Wo Tu, and also his longing for Wo Tu’s missing him. Grandpa finally revealed the knot in his heart, he wanted to tell Wo Tu in person, I did something bad, but I am not a bad person. The so-called bad thing, of course, is the fate of most ordinary people in that era: in order not to be abandoned by the revolutionary torrent, they would rather betray their beloved ones. This was commonplaces in the rural land reform and urban factory restructuring from private to nation-owned at that time, exactly the same as during the Cultural Revolution. So many husbands and sons were mutually exposed and criticized, their families were broken, and many committed suicide. This is also like Li Haiyan in my previous film “So Long, My Son”, who most wanted to hear Liyun’s forgiveness before her death.


In today’s China, after nearly 20 years of high-speed economic development and rapid urbanization, poor people from rural areas have been rushing into the cities crazily, and the land is abandoned behind. In the movie, Grandpa sticks to the land he cherishes, but with his passing, the family traces on the land have evaporated. This is a part of my reflection on today’s China through “Wo Tu”. Whether it is the Land Reform Movement that started in the 1950s, the private-to-national entrepreneurship movement, or the ten-year turmoil of the Cultural Revolution that followed, they are all interrelated and profoundly affecting China and the Chinese people.


Wang Xiaoshuai


MAIN CAST
BIOGRAPHY

O U Y A N G  W E N X I N
(as WO TU - the son)

OUYANG WENXIN, born on December 30, 2012, hails from Baiyin City, Gansu Province, China, and is 10 years old. He is a fourth-grade student at an elementary school and is currently a non- professional actor. In his debut film, "Above the Dust," he delivers a natural and remarkably talented performance that perfectly complements his character.

Y O N G  M E I  
(as Muyue - Mother)

YONG MEI is a mainland Chinese actress. She won the Best Actress award at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival and the Best Actress award at the 32nd China Golden Rooster Awards. In 2019, she was also named one of the top ten actresses by The Guardian. She has appeared in many well-known films such as SO LONG, MY SON (2019), THE ASSASSIN (2015), AFTERSHOCK (2010). Through these works, she has successfully portrayed an image of an Eastern woman with charm, poise, and grace, earning her a place in the hearts of many viewers.

Z U  F E N G
(as CHUAN - Father)

ZU FENG is an actor and director from Mainland China. He graduated from the Beijing Film Academy with a Master of Fine Arts. He taught at Beijing Film Academy for six years as a lecturer. As an actor, he has collaborated with many well-known Chinese directors. His representative works include MYSTERY (2012), THE GOLDEN ERA (2014), COMING HOME (2014), ACROSS THE FURIOUS SEA (2020), ABOVE THE DUST (2023), and A LONG SHOT (2023).

In 2018, ZU Feng directed the film SUMMER OF CHANGSHA, which was shortlisted for the "" Un Certain Regard"" selection of the 72nd Cannes Film Festival and the ""Hidden Dragons"" selection of the 3rd Pingyao Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon International Film Festival.

L I  J U N
(as GRANDFATHER)

LI JUN is a mainland Chinese actor and a National First-Class Actor. His lead role in the microfilm Lifeline(2016) was selected for the ""Focus on World Cinema"" section at the 39th Montreal International Film Festival in 2015 and was also nominated for the Short Film Competition section at the 35th Hawaii International Film Festival that same year.

His notable works in feature films includes: SHADOW MONOLOGUE (2011), WHITE WEDDING (2023), THE BATTLE AT LAKE CHANGJIN (2021).

MAIN
CAST  

 OUYANG WENXIN
as WO TU


 YONG MEI  
as MUYUE


 ZU FENG  
as CHUAN


 LI JUN  
as GRANDFATHER


 WANG ZICHUAN  
as JIU


 ZHAO XiAONING  
as GREAT-GRANDFATHER

MAIN
CREW  

Director: WANG Xiaoshuai

Writer: WANG Xiaoshuai

Co-Producers: Leontine PETIT, Erik GLIJNIS

Director of Photography: KIM Hyunseok

Production Designer: LV Dong

Sound Designer: Michel SCHÖPPING

Sound Recordist: JIANG Peng

Editor: Ruben Van Der HAMMEN, NCE

Composer: Juho NURMEL, Ella van der WOUDE

Based on/Drafted by THE SHORT STORY 'THE MAGIC OF MY GRANDPA' / LI Shijiang

TECHNICAL
DETAILS

Original title: WO TU

International title: ABOVE THE DUST

Duration: 123 min

Aspect Ratio: 2:1

Format: DCP

Sound: 7.1

Year: 2024

Original languages: Northwest Chinese Dialect / Mandarin

Countries of production: China, Netherlands

Co-production Companies: LEMMING FILM B.V.

With the support of: Special Fund for Promoting the Development of Shanghai Film, The Netherlands Film Fund and the Netherlands Film Production Incentive, JingAn District Special Fund for Shanghai Films

INTERNATIONAL
PRESS

Gloria Zerbinati 

gloria.zerbinati@gmail.com
+33 (0)7 86 80 02 82