A glimmer of hope in desperate times: In an era of extreme poverty, see how lives that were "exchanged" struggle to find resilient love and dignity in the cracks between stones.
The romance of a rugged man from the northwest: No sweet talk, only food saved for you, sheep fat simmered for you, stones warmed for your hands, a stone house built for you, and a solemn promise: "As long as I have a bite to eat, so do you."
A portrait of a Hui mountain village: Strict adherence to halal food (beef, mutton, chicken, duck, goose, and fish), with customs such as slaughtering sheep for Eid al-Fitr and having a marriage solemnized through nikah, depicting an authentic and unvarnished life in an ethnic community.
The hardships of making a living from medicinal herbs: The danger of scaling cliffs to gather Acorus, the numbness and stinging fingertips from washing pinellia, and the frantic race to dry the herbs in the sun together form a unique regional epic of survival.
Both leads are pure, and they stay by each other's side: What begins as a transaction made under duress ends in a loyal bond of mutual support. On barren land, the purest and most resilient flower of love blooms.
This is a song of survival dedicated to the yellow earth, and a plainspoken love story taking root in the cracks between stones. See how a man and a woman caught in the grip of their times and poverty use sweat, silence, and clumsy tenderness to carve out light and warmth of their own amid the sweeping sand and wind.
