ETERNAL SPRING
Review: Documentary
By Thubelihle Mathonsi
Eternal Spring is a documentary that explores the Falun Gong movement and the persecution of its practitioners. The film discusses values commonly associated with several spiritual or religious groups, such as kindness, love, compassion, and the pursuit of peace. However, I felt that a lot was omitted from the story of Falun Gong. This prompted me to do some research on its practitioners. I was particularly curious about the role of women in the movement, as this was my first time hearing about it.
Falun Gong is considered by some to be a cult with very conservative views with members who are anti-vaccination, who consider homosexuality a sin, and who criticise female equality. Shun-Ching interviewed a young female follower in Hong Kong who once suffered from a hurtful abdominal pain but she refused to seek medical treatment. She believed that the pain was a blessing bestowed by Master Li to remove part of her bad karma. It seems there was a deliberate omission of those types of beliefs in Eternal Spring when it came to discussing the movement’s views.
The documentary focuses on the victims of persecution, the violation of human rights, and the events leading to the 2002 hijacking of state-run television as an act of activism. The use of animation serves to depict places that some individuals may never be able to return to due to the persecution they fled. This storytelling choice allows viewers to walk down memory lane alongside the film’s subjects.
The artist Daxiong recalls his home as a place seemingly straight out of a fairy tale as he reflects on his childhood in Changchun – which also translates to ‘Eternal Spring’. His love for comics growing up is evident in his recollections of General Yue Fei, a patriotic figure referenced in the documentary. He likens the people who died to the heroes he grew up reading about that embodied loyalty and love for their country.
The film pays tribute to and honours those who lost their lives for their beliefs while also critiquing the suppression imposed by the Chinese Communist Party referred to throughout as “the Party”. Yet, despite its powerful message of resistance and fighting for what you believe in, it feels as though much of the story remains untold.
- This docLOVE film is part of SIMA’s travelling series, CINEMA ACROSS BORDERS and is screened courtesy of SIMA Studios.
