The Coffin Painter (Da Fei) China. Offcial Section |

The Coffin Painter
Da Fei
China. 2021. 95 min

Middle-aged Old Jia and teenage girl Seven came to the town and became neighbors under different circumstances. From indifference to being attached, they look for a new life from each other.

In his second feature film The Coffin Painter, Da Fei tells a warm story of the cross-generational friendship between two strangers: Jia, an older man who has lost his son, and Seven, a middle school girl who runs from debt with her mother. As a coffin painter, the traditional Chinese craftsman who draws religious symbols on coffins, Jia witnesses people’s different attitudes towards their families living and dead. As time passes by, the three characters with distinct personalities drift closer and bring company and warmth to each other.
By depicting the mundane daily life in the remote town, Da Fei embodies people’s loneliness in an indifferent world. The sincere and gloomy tone of the film drives us to feel the characters’ burdens and sorrow. As Jia and Seven understand and heal each other with their kindness, their life’s reverse point eventually comes…

DA FEI

Da Fei, a Chinese film writer and director, graduated from Shanxi Media College in 2007. In 2018, Silent Winter was produced. It was selected in the First Time Filmmaker Section of the 42nd Montreal International Film Festival.
It won more than 20 nominations and awards including Best Film, Best Screenwriter at South Africa Independent Film Festival, and Best Original Screenplay at the London International Film Festival in 2019.

FILMOGRAPHY

2006 Short film Free Flight
2018 Feature film Silent Winter
2021 Feature Film The Coffin Painter

INTERVIEW