Filming has begun for "Chenxiang Mountain", the third collaborative film being co-produced by China and France following the successful completion of major productions "Wolf Totem" and "The Nightingale".
Set during the last world war, "Chenxiang Mountain" explores the real-life romance between a French soldier and a Chinese girl named Li Xiuying.
Li died in 2013, at age 95, without having had the chance to reunite with her French lover but had provided enough details and inspiration to screenwriter Fan Yiping, who met her in person five years before her passing.
The true-to-life film, now being shot in a mountainous village on China's Guangxi region where Li had lived, gives a moving portrayal of love that is powerful enough to transcend race, but turns into unrequited longing when the protagonists are brought together but eventually separated by the exigencies of war.
Li is said to have met the French soldier in 1945 when the latter's army retreated into China from Vietnam upon their defeat by the Japanese army in World War II.
The soldier returned to his native France a year later, leaving Li in an agonizing wait that spanned 70 years. The screenplay took five years to finish, but the writer said it was nothing compared to Li's long wait for her beloved, who never returned.
French director Denis Dercourt is capitalizing on the scenic landscape to create powerful imagery that will go along with a soulful theme music to bring out the bittersweet elements of a love that was not meant to be.
The co-production venture on "Chenxiang Mountain" was made possible by a 2010 bilateral cultural agreement between China and France, which has already yielded "The Nightingale", China's entry to the 2015 Oscars' Best Foreign Language film category.
Another co-production, "Wolf Totem", began filming in Inner Mongolia last year and is due for release next month.
These joint ventures have the added advantage of getting a foreign co-produced film shown in China's cinemas without going through the quota system imposed on other foreign films, while also allowing Chinese producers to showcase their product abroad
"Chenxiang Mountain" producers said French moviegoers are not so much into Chinese screen celebrities, but do have a great appreciation for China-made films that showcase the cultural heritage and lifestyles of ethnic minorities.
