The Finger and The Moon Premiered at the SRIFF

The Finger and The Moon Premiered at the SRIFF

    On September 15, 2015, the drama Sima Qian created and orchestrated by the Beijing People’s Art Theatre made its debut in Beijing. One year later, a documentary film The Finger and The Moon related to the behind-the-scenes stories of the drama was unveiled. On the morning of September 22, the grand premiere of the documentary film The Finger and The Moon, co-produced by the Hancheng Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Hancheng Municipal People’s Government, Shaanxi Shengxinghaoyue Culture & Communication Co., Ltd., and Western Movie Group, was held in Qujiang International Movie Theater, where more than a hundred moviegoers experienced the stage and artistic charm through the film, while feeling the inheritance and development of the spirit of Sima Qian the documentary film conveys.

    A grand annual original historical play that the Beijing People’s Art Theatre presented to the audience in 2015, The drama Sima Qian depicts the process of Sima Qian (145 BC - 90 BC) enduring all disgrace and insults to write the Historical Records after being convicted of expressing his views about the “Li Ling Event”, and even adds the scenes of his living together with his family and the confrontation of ideas with Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. Besides, it also presents the dialogue between Sima Qian and Qu Yuan (340 BC - 278 BC) across the time and space in the alternating form of nihility and reality.

    The documentary film Sima Qian documented the entire behind-the-scenes process of the drama Sima Qian that the Beijing People’s Art Theatre prepared for ten years. Through interviews and following shots of cast & crew and backroom team including the director Ren Ming, screenwriter Xiong Zhaozheng, and leading actor Feng Yuanzheng, the film records the birth process of the drama with cinema, revealing the behind-the-scenes stories of the drama. It shows the audience the behind-the-scenes stories of the Beijing People’s Art Theatre and the spirit of the craftsman embodied in senior artists. This is exactly the inheritance and development of the spirit of Sima Qian across the times.

    Mr. Zhang Wei who hails from the hometown of Sima Qian specially made the trip to attend the premiere. In an interview with a reporter after watching the film, he said the movie was rooted in the drama, but it was added with more languages. So, from the perspective of viewing feeling, Zhang felt that he did not just feel the stage charm of the drama, but watched a movie. The film means not only a presentation of the drama, but even a reoccurrence of that period of history. It explores the practice significance of the spirit of Sima Qian, and also carries forward the new spirit of the age.

    At his address, Lei Jianqiang, chairman of the film producer Shaanxi Shengxinghaoyue Culture & Communication Co., Ltd., said that from the perspective of the film narration, it is not just a documentary of depicting the creation process of the drama Sima Qian, but also infused with thinking of the film production team on the significance of Sima Qian and his monumental works Historical Records to the present age. We wanted to tell the modern people the spirit of Sima Qian and its practical significance through photologging.