We interviewed Qiu Yang about his debut feature film, Some Rain Must Fall, which navigates the profound self-discovery of a lost housewife amidst the challenges of COVID-era filmmaking, winning acclaim at major international festivals.
Qiu Yang has been working non-stop, delivering many short films to audiences throughout his film career. His short films, such as Under the Sun (2015), A Gentle Night (2017), She Runs (2019), and O (2019), have made lasting impressions at major film festivals, including the Venice Film Festival and Cannes. Earlier this year, Yang premiered his feature film directorial debut, Some Rain Must Fall, at the Berlin International Film Festival. Now, Yang’s film has made its North American premiere as part of the international narrative competition of the Tribeca Film Festival, where the film won two awards: Best Actress and Best Cinematography. The film explores the life of Cai (Yu Aier), a housewife and mother who seems lost about who she is and wants to be. At a basketball match for her daughter, she injures an elderly woman, which triggers a crisis for Cai as she questions her life and choices. Film Fest Report had the exclusive chance to connect with Yang to speak about how his film has been a long time coming and what he hopes audiences take away from it.
Kristin Ciliberto: You have made short films, but you are making your directorial debut. Were you nervous about making your feature film debut?
Qiu Yang: I mean, when you make a film, a feature film is such a different beast. Its scale is, I don’t know, a hundred times bigger, and you involve more people and more resources to create the story. You have to show more responsibility and deal with pressures and everything. With short films, I always treated them as exercises. I’ve made a couple of short films, and the more you make, the more you find ways to handle the pressure. This is my first feature, and I was incredibly nervous. The production was especially tough since we shot during COVID, which added a lot of challenges.
KC: You mentioned filming during COVID. How long did it take for you to put together the entire film, and did you learn anything as a filmmaker?
QY: It was a long and difficult process. We shot the film in the middle of the 2021 winter during COVID in China. The shoot lasted six days a week, which is different from the typical seven days a week with no breaks in China. My director of photography is German, so we maintained a six-day work week. We ended up with some pickups, totaling 92 production days. It was extraordinary but too long. We faced many challenges with locations due to COVID. Schools and hospitals, controlled by the government, were particularly tough to access. We had to deal with frequent stoppages and delays due to COVID outbreaks. The entire post-production took about a year, some of it done in Thailand and the rest in France.
KC: I can imagine the stress of 92 days. That’s a lot for an indie film.
QY: Yeah, you’re right. For an indie film, people usually expect about 20 days of shooting. When I tell people it was 92 days, they’re often jealous, but it was too much due to the constant delays and location issues. We had to stop shooting for weeks at a time when COVID cases spiked and affected our access to publicly owned locations.
KC: Let’s discuss the casting of Cai. She was phenomenal and had an emotionally challenging role. Can you talk about the casting process?
QY: The casting director specialized in street casting since almost all of the actors or actresses in the film were non-professional. I usually do all my own casting for short films, but for this feature, I needed help. The casting director discovered Yu Aier during street casting. Initially, she applied for an extra role, but the casting director saw something special in her. We watched her audition and were impressed. After meeting her and conducting some tests, we decided she was perfect for the role. My cinematographer Constanze Schmitt was also enamored with her. Yu Aier was able to pull off some especially difficult scenes in a way that moved me.
KC: You also brought up your cinematographer, Constanze Schmitt. I paid close attention to the cinematography, and I thought the framing of the film was very interesting. Can you talk about working with Constanze?
QY: We’ve known each other since 2015 when we both had films in the same festival. We appreciated each other’s work and began collaborating on my next short film. Constanze can handle both big budgets and low-budget, workshop-type filmmaking, which was perfect for me. Our first collaboration was A Gentle Night (2017), which did well, and then She Runs (2019), which also did well. We have a mutual understanding and similar tastes, making our collaboration seamless. We rarely needed to discuss visuals in detail because we knew exactly what each other wanted.
KC: I love hearing how you built this relationship and how she understood your vision. What do you hope audiences take away from the film?
QY: The film raises more questions than it answers, allowing each audience member to form their own understanding of Cai. The film is about her self-discovery, but she doesn’t fully articulate what she wants to run away from or who she is. This ambiguity reflects real-life growth, which is often subtle and gradual. I hope the audience feels that something has shifted for Cai, even if they can’t pinpoint exactly what it is. This ambiguity invites discussion and personal interpretation, which is what I want.
Explore our exclusive coverage of the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival here.
