Short of the Week: a vital protest by Hu Wei
In recent years, many emerging directors from China have taken the world by storm through their unique approaches to film art. Ranging from Bi Gan to Hu Bo, this new body of Chinese cinema has carved out a unique space for itself due to its cinematic innovations and sociopolitical theses on the issues plaguing China. Among them, one interesting filmmaker who has managed to capture global attention is Hu Wei.
For this edition of Short of the Week, we have decided to highlight Hu Wei’s Oscar-nominated short film Butter Lamp which is definitely among the most important cinematic protests of the last decade. Utilising a cast of non-professional actors, the Chinese director created an ingenious piece which reflects on the erasure of Tibetian culture. During an interview, Hu Wei opened up about the original source of inspiration for the film – a photograph by Michael Nash.
The filmmaker said (via Directors Notes): “The idea of Butter Lamp has existed for a long time, but it wasn’t until 2008 at the FIAC Paris when I saw Michael Nash’s photograph ‘Warsaw 1946’, did I finally decide to write the script. In this photograph, a photographer uses a backdrop with some rural scenery to mask the war ruins while shooting a portrait for a woman, it was taken in Warsaw in November of 1946. The differentiation of space presented in one photograph really impressed me, and I think that is sort of a common agreement between the Western culture and the Oriental culture, after that, I finished the screenplay of Butter Lamp.”
Incorporating multiple layers of political commentary, the film presents a simple premise – a Chinese photographer making money off of Tibetian subjects by inserting them in front of stock backgrounds. The film faced a lot of disruptions during the production process, especially because some people involved thought that they were being used as political tools.
Hu Wei revealed: “During the first attempt of filming, the Tibetans saw the backdrop with the picture of the Tiananmen Square and were furious. They thought that I was using them for some sort of political propaganda, and it led to a serious conflict, some radical Tibetans smashed a camera and injured the camera operator. To avoid further escalations, we chose to give up. We then waited for two years to resume the production. In the two years between the two attempts, I shot another short film; some decided to quit the production of Butter Lamp, and some joined us on board.”
Butter Lamp is a powerfully poetic idea that is executed to perfection, raising many important questions about cultural identity, strained China-Tibet relations and the national erosion facilitated by globalisation. Watch the film below.
