White Deer Plain

White Deer Plain is a 2011 Chinese drama film directed by Wang Quan'an and based on the novel of the same name by Chen Zhongshi. The film competed in competition for the Golden Bear at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival, where Lutz Reitemeier was awarded a Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution (Photography). The film focuses primarily on Bai Juaxian, his son Xiaowen and Hei Wa up to the point of the war with Japan. Many of the other characters in the novel are not mentioned. Plot Bai Juaxian is the elder of a rural village on White Deer Plain. He treats his farm hand Lu San as a brother and considers his son Xiaowen and Lu San's son Hei Wa brothers. When the cart delivering the village's grain contributions to the Emperor returns, they learn that the Emperor has been replaced by the Nationalist (KMT) government. A drunk Lu Zilin later returns to the village to report he has a position as an official. During a dinner celebration, villagers report that there is trouble with the KMT. Juaxian leads the villages in a confrontation with a small KMT contingent and is successful in driving them off. In 1920, Lu Zilin's eldest son Lu Ziaopeng is about to be married off in an arranged marriage. Ziaopeng runs off before the wedding. Hei Wa also runs off because of an impending marriage arranged by Bai Juaxian. Hei Wa gets work as a hired hand with a wealthy family. The patriarch of the family is elderly but his concubine Tian Xiao-er is young, attractive and vital. She has an affair with Hei Wa. They are caught and tortured and left for dead in a field. Hei Wa returns with Xiao-er to White Deer Plain. They are allowed to marry but they are not allowed to honor their ancestors at the village shrine. This was Bai Juaxian's direction. When Hei Wa returns home he is cast out by his father. Meanwhile, Zhaopeng has returned as a teacher at the local school. The KMT arrives at the village and demands their grain tribute. They threaten to shoot Juaxian if he does not comply. Hei Wa with the help of Zhaopeng set fire to the fields at night. The KMT execute a villager as an example. Hei Wa with the support of Ziaopeng decide to raid the ancestral hall and arrest and parade several local villages for corruption. One of the arrested villages collapses and dies.