Promotional material for Return to Dust Photo: Courtesy of Douban

Movie 'Return to Dust': Picturesque rural drama depicts mundane, realistic life

Releasing Friday, movie Return to Dust might be one of the most highly anticipated films of the summer following the attention it gained in February at the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival. 

A vast desert and barren land, a house built with mud and bricks, plus kilometers of golden wheat fields form an image of the picturesque local life in Northwest China's Gansu Province. 

Through comforting pictures and slow paced cinematography, it presents audiences with an authentic experience of the northwest countryside, as well as a simple love story of a couple who depend on each other and work hard in a northwest rural village.

The story unfolds slowly. The main character Guiying is a woman with a disability who is also infertile. Her husband Ma Youtie is the fourth son of a poor family. Outcasts both, neither of them were valued by their families before they  met during a blind date and married through a matchmaker.

The movie provides audiences with insight into the two strangers and their story of getting to know and falling in love with one another, forming a small family while struggling to adapt to a fiercely competitive society.

From To Live by China's famous writer Yu Hua to Red Sorghum by Nobel Prize Winner Mo Yan, Chinese literature has never lacked for descriptions of small, down-to-earth but heroic and laudable rural characters and the lands where they live.  

Director Li Ruijun also incorporated his hometown in Zhangye, Gansu Province, into the film. Through detailed depictions of Chinese local customs, the director captures a story with strong northwest characteristics. 

Other than being a crossroads along the ancient Silk Road for a diverse range of merchants, Gansu Province is also home to farmers who must make a living off the land for their entire lives while struggling with a fragile ecosystem and complicated interpersonal relationships.  

Li is also the cinematographer for the film, which contains remarkably beautiful scenery. The color stitching of the deep green sky and warm ginger ears of wheat of this land adds to the lovable but broken story.