Red Earth

Overview

Song Xiebao from the Xinjiang Yili Television Station adopted an approach reminiscent of “the father of documentary,” Robert Flaherty, and his style of “romantic ethnography” in the production of Red Earth, which depicts the everyday life of three generations of a Uyghur family living beneath the Flaming Mountains in Xinjiang. Much like Nanook of the North (1922), the characters in the film are all staged portrayals, and the narrative is deliberately arranged, aiming to present a traditional way of life as understood by the filmmaker—one that reflects what they perceive to be the enduring customs of the local people over the centuries.