A First Farewell

Deep in northwestern China, surrounded by cotton fields and desert, lies the Uyghur village that Isa calls home. When he is not at school or working on his parents‘ farmyard, he spends carefree days with his friends – until the outside world starts forcing him to say one goodbye after another. With Isa’s mother‘s illness placing an increasing burden on the family, his father considers putting her in a care home, far away from the village. Isa‘s best friend Kalbinur is getting bad grades, and is about to be sent to a faraway Chinese school. And then the little lamb, which the two children had been looking after with devotion ever since it was born, disappears. Captured in naturalistic imagery, winter closes in on Isa‘s world.

WANG Lina was born in the Uighur region in Xinjiang in 1987 and studied at the Communication University of China. A First Farewell is her debut film and a poetic piece dedicated to her hometown.

After 6 months of field research and a year of documenting, she and her crew spent two years stationed in Shaya, Xinjiang shooting the film. The film is a perfect combination of reality, poetry and story.