CHINA CINEMA SHOWCASE
THE CORD OF LIFE
(脐带)
MIDWEST PREMIERE
Inner Mongolia, China | Drama/Family | 2022 | 96 minutes | In Mongolian w/ English subtitles
DIRECTOR & SCREENWRITER: Qiao Sixue
STARRING: Badma, Yider
Available for streaming April 9-24, 2024 for U.S. viewers.
SYNOPSIS:
Alus is a Mongolian electronic musician confused about what he wants in life. He also cannot bear to see his mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, living like a captive in his brother’s city apartment. He decides to take her back to the grassland in search of the home for which she yearns. As his mother’s condition worsens, Alus tries to prevent her from getting lost by tying his mother to him with a rope. The rope is like an umbilical cord that reconnects him to his mother’s thoughts, his hometown and his native culture.
The audience is invited to “travel with the film through the city’s electronic music night to the dancing and laughter accompanied by the horsehead violin music on the Mongolian grasslands. The cord that ties son to mother serves as a metaphor that binds the two generations and allows them to revisit the sounds of the past and the scent of the grassland in their memories. The loosening of this cord represents the physical demise of nomadic culture and the new generation's embrace and acceptance of their roots.” - Excerpt from the Asia Society.
Qiao Sixue, Director
Qiao Sixue was born in Inner Mongolia, China. After graduating from 3IS Ecoles & Formations d'audiovisuel à Paris de la France Academy, at the end of 2015, she worked at KOI Films Company in Paris and participated in dozens of short films. The Cord of Life is her debut feature. The project was previously selected by project markets including HAF Film Lab 2019 (Hong Kong). In 2022, the project won the Special Prize at the Project Market of Beijing International Film Festival.