Chinese Feature Film Salvaged from Corrupt Hard Drive, to Screen at Kazan IFF

BEIJING - Aug. 28, 2018 - PRLog -- A new feature film by Beijing-based director Hua Yuan will make its international premiere at the 2018 Kazan International Film Festival in Tatarstan after previously being withdrawn from competing at the 7th Zabaikalsky International Film Festival (May - June, 2018) when the hard drive containing the only master copy was found to be corrupt.

Never Old, a bittersweet tale of filiality, would have made its world premiere at Zabaikalsky in June, but a hapless employee at the production company tampered with the drive, rendering it inaccessible.

Events took a happier turn when experts were eventually able to recover the files. The film is now due to compete at the 2018 Kazan International Film Festival next month (September) in the Russian Republic of Tatarstan.

The film traces a son's relationship with his elderly parents.

Shortly after completing the film, Hua Yuan's father passed away and his mother sank rapidly into senile dementia, almost exactly mirroring the events portrayed at the end of the movie. Writing and shooting the film turned out to be a cathartic experience for Hua. "I wrote and shot the entire film in a state of anxiety and depression but, as a result of making it, I somehow extricated myself from this awful mental and emotional predicament. I often wonder whether I could live as peacefully as I do now if I had not made the film."

https://vimeo.com/287053508



Liang Luyuan, a winner of several acting awards from a career which began in the 1950's, gives an exquisitely authentic performance as a mother (Mrs Jiang) sinking into senile dementia. Aged 78 at the time of shooting, Luyuan says she jumped at the chance to play the role after being inspired by the example of another Chinese veteran actress, Qin Yi, who directed and starred in a movie at the age of 93!

The film also stars Cao Peichang, Zhao Gang and Kong Wei.

Never Old will compete in the main section of the 2018 Kazan International Muslim Film Festival (4th - 10th September, 2018).

Now in its thirteenth year, KIMFF is an annual festival of films "reflecting human, spiritual and moral values as well as cultural traditions, supporting the ideas of peacemaking, tolerance and humanity regardless of the nationality and religious affiliation of the filmmakers".

More info (download movie press kit): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16zw95j8bvwBNvL4nc...