▲Stills from the movie "The Musician"

▲Poster of the movie "The Musician"

▲Stills from the movie "The Musician"

▲Stills from the movie "The Musician" (the pictures accompanying this article are provided by the producer)

On September 7, 2013, when President Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan, he told a story: "There is a Xian Xinghai Avenue in Almaty, an ancient city on the ancient Silk Road. People recite this A story. When the Great Patriotic War broke out in 1941, the famous Chinese musician Xian Xinghai came to Almaty. When he had no relatives and was suffering from poverty and illness, the Kazakh musician Baikdamov accepted him and provided him with We have created a warm home." "In Almaty, Xian Xinghai created famous musical works such as "National Liberation", "Holy War", and "Man Jiang Hong", and created a symphony based on the deeds of the Kazakh national hero Armangeld. The poem "Armangeld" inspired people to fight against fascism and was widely welcomed by the local people."

On September 13, 2022, on the eve of his state visit to the Republic of Kazakhstan at the invitation of President Tokayev, President Xi Jinping published an article in "Kazakhstan Pravda" entitled "Promoting China-Kazakhstan relations to achieve greater development while continuing the past and opening up the future" The story is mentioned again in the byline.

I was deeply touched by this story. Xian Xinghai is a household name in China. His masterpiece "Yellow River Cantata" is hailed as the epic of the Chinese nation, but his experience in Kazakhstan during the last five years of his life is rarely known.

In May 1940, Xian Xinghai was dispatched by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to the Soviet Union to perform post-production and soundtrack for the large-scale documentary "Yan'an and the Eighth Route Army". Post-production was interrupted due to the outbreak of the Soviet-German War in June 1941. Xian Xinghai originally planned to return to Yan'an via Xinjiang, but failed due to the local warlord Sheng Shicai's anti-communist campaign and traffic disruption, so he was forced to be detained in Almaty. Kazakh musician Baikdamov placed the poor and sick Xian Xinghai in the home of his sister Danash. During his stay in Kazakhstan, Xian Xinghai collaborated with Baikdamov and created a large number of music, leaving a valuable legacy in the history of Kazakh music.

The friendship between Xian Xinghai and Baikdamov is based on their common pursuit of art and music and their incomparable love for their respective countries and peoples. The two musicians helped and inspired each other during the difficult years of the war years. This spirit moved me deeply. I have a long history with the Kazakhstan film industry due to my work. Kazakhstan has expressed to me many times its willingness to cooperate with China in making movies. Xian Xinghai’s experience in Kazakhstan is a very good subject for Sino-Kazakhstan film co-production. So we started researching and visited Almaty several times, and the National Film Group of Kazakhstan gave us strong support.

Kaliya, who was still alive at that time, fondly recalled to us the difficult years that Xian Xinghai lived with her and her mother Danash at her home in Almaty; Baikdamov's daughter Baikdamova said to us: " Xian Xinghai's pseudonym was Huang Xun, and no one knew who he was. Even if my father had not met him, I believe someone would have helped him. There is a proverb in our Kazakh nation, 'Save a life, and the sheep in the family will give birth to twins' '." The Kazakh national tradition of lending a helping hand to those in distress coincides with our Chinese nation's cultural heritage of "a drop of water's kindness will be repaid by a spring's spring."

We visited Xian Xinghai’s only daughter Xian Nina in Hangzhou. She is a close sister to Kaliya in Almaty. Xian Xinghai went to the Soviet Union to do post-production and soundtrack for the documentary "Yan'an and the Eighth Route Army". When he left Yan'an, Xian Nina was only 8 months old. The painful memory of her and her mother Qian Yunling waiting for her father accompanied her throughout her childhood, and she was very eager to reunite with her father on the big screen.

Su Xiaowei, a well-known Chinese screenwriter who was responsible for coordinating the script creation of "The Musician" and the director of the Film Script Planning Center at the time, said during the creative discussion, "We owe Xian Xinghai a movie." A clear understanding of history can illuminate today's people. Xian Xinghai’s experience in Kazakhstan embodies the Kazakh nation’s noble character of “giving kindness without repaying kindness, and giving without regret.” He hopes that through film creation, he can inherit the friendship between China and Kazakhstan and at the same time carry the Chinese nation’s cultural tradition of “knowing kindness and repaying kindness.”

With the vigorous promotion and support of the film authorities of China and Kazakhstan, "The Musician" became the launch project and the first work in 2017 when the heads of state of China and Kazakhstan witnessed the signing of the "China-Kazakhstan Film Co-production Agreement."

The foreign ministries of China and Kazakhstan, the Chinese Embassy in Kazakhstan, the Chinese Consulate General in Almaty and the Kazakhstan Embassy in China have always provided firm support and assistance during the preparation and filming of the film.

Xian Xinghai has left important life and creative tracks in the publicity departments of Beijing, Shanghai, Hubei Province, Shaanxi Province, Xi'an City, and Yan'an City, and related film companies such as Xi'an Qujiang Film and Television Group, Hubei Yangtze River Film Group, and Shanghai Film Group. jointly supported the filming of this film.

The creative team jointly formed by China and Kazakhstan is top-notch. Sirzati Yahefu, who serves as the director, is a national first-class director of the Uyghur ethnic group in Xinjiang, China. His films have been screened in Kazakhstan many times and have been well received; Hu Jun, who plays Xian Xinghai, is a well-known Chinese actor who comes from a musical family. In order to experience and express Xian Xinghai’s difficult wartime life in Almaty, he started fasting for a long time during the preparations; the actor Yuan Quan, who played Xian Xinghai’s wife Qian Yunling, was moved when we told her the story for the first time. Crying with tears; Berik Etzhanov, the famous Kazakh actor who plays Bykdamov, personally helped Hu Jun, who had “zero basic knowledge of Russian”, to correct the Russian pronunciation of each line; Sabit Ku, who served as the artistic director Manbekov is a prestigious film director in Kazakhstan. He has great respect and support for the Chinese director of the film. He has told me many times: "In order to show the friendship in need between the great musicians of the two countries, I can do it without my name." ." During the filming process, Sabit invited the Chinese creators to his home many times, leaving us with very unforgettable memories.

The crew of "The Musician" come from different countries and nationalities. They often speak Chinese, English, Russian and Kazakh at the same time at the work site, so that there are sometimes more than 20 translators working at the same time on the set.

Almost all colleagues from Kazakhstan know Xian Xinghai's masterpiece "Armangeld" composed in Kazakhstan, and can hum the classic fragments from it. Every morning when work begins, the Chinese and Kazakh crew often use "Xian Xinghai" as a greeting. During the filming of "The Musician", everyone was very involved and deeply "immersed in the drama". During the process, they experienced a lot of spiritual shock and soul baptism. Many senior filmmakers on the crew lamented that they had never seen such a warm and friendly crew atmosphere in their decades of filmmaking.

"The Musician" lasted five years from preparation to completion, and was filmed in China, Kazakhstan and Russia. More than 20,000 people participated in the filming. Every important type of work and position was jointly participated and completed by personnel from the two countries, creating a pioneering It is the first film co-production between China and Kazakhstan and China and Central Asia.

At the premiere press conference of "The Musician" in Beijing, despite her physical weakness and illness, old man Kaliya insisted on coming to China and reunited with Xian Nina after 20 years. Kaliya passed away in Almaty in May this year. Xianina asked me to convey her condolences to Kaliya's daughter: the sisters reunited in front of the screen after 80 years of separation. My dear sister Kalia, how I miss you so much! Love you forever sister Nina!

At the premieres held in Nur-Sultan and Almaty respectively, the Kazakhstani audience was moved by the plot and applauded for a long time. I stood on the stage and faced thousands of people in the audience bursting into tears. This scene will be unforgettable for the rest of my life.

Before the outbreak of the new coronavirus pneumonia, "The Musician" was invited to participate in film festivals and screenings in the United States, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Brazil, Nepal and other places, and won many awards and praise from local media and audiences; since then, "The Musician" "Musician" has been screened many times on several national television stations in Kazakhstan. Director Sirzati and actor Hu Jun and I also recorded a video at the invitation of the Kazakh National Television to express our solidarity with the Kazakh people in their fight against the epidemic. The video was widely forwarded and disseminated on major social media in Kazakhstan. In October 2020, the Chinese Embassy in Kazakhstan and Astana TV in Nur-Sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan, jointly hosted the Chinese Film Month event. "The Musician" was the opening film, with a ratings of 9%. The TV station immediately decided to Daily replay.

The relationship between countries lies in the mutual affinity between the people, and the mutual affinity between the peoples lies in the mutual understanding of the hearts. June 7, 2018 is an unforgettable and memorable day for everyone on the "Musician" crew. The heads of state of China and Kazakhstan cordially received the main cast and crew of "The Musician" at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and watched the film's trailer.

Film is an art form with great mass communication effect, and filmmakers are also a group of people with high social attention and influence in various countries around the world. The film co-production process, from every aspect of creativity, creation, preparation, filming, production, distribution and screening, can create and establish a bridge of communication and friendship with the partner countries and partners, and become a catalyst for cultural exchanges and public support. important platform for communication.

Film production is a relatively complex task. International co-production of films involves the culture and diplomacy of two countries, which is more challenging and requires more understanding and support from all walks of life.

The following text is engraved on the monument on Xian Xinghai Avenue in Almaty: "Xian Xinghai used music to build a bridge of friendship between the people of the two countries. Let us always remember his name and hope that the friendship between China and Kazakhstan will be passed down from generation to generation." .

As time goes by, the people of Kazakhstan have not only not forgotten the large number of musical works Xian Xinghai created for Kazakhstan and his contribution to using music as a weapon to inspire the Kazakh people to join the anti-fascist war, but also because of the joint construction of the "Belt and Road", China and Kazakhstan The friendship between the two great musicians in times of adversity has become a good story for the inheritance of friendship between the two peoples. Many of Xian Xinghai's works are still in the repertoire of music groups such as the Kazakhstan National Opera and the Philharmonic Orchestra.

China and Kazakhstan share a long border and broad space for cooperation. If China-Kazakhstan friendship is like a big tree, it can flourish only if watered from generation to generation.

I hope that after "The Musician", more Sino-Kazakhstan co-productions will come out in the future, and I also hope that there will be more Chinese and foreign film cooperation to help China and the people of the world continue to deepen the friendship and "people-to-people connections" and show more beauty. A picture of mutual learning among civilizations that we share. To this end, we are willing to continue to work hard, explore and practice with our colleagues in Kazakhstan and the world’s film industry.