"This is not just a story, viewers will have to meditate on it," Lv Zhong, the protagonist of Chuang ru zhe (Red Amnesia), the new film by Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai competing for the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival, told Xinhua in an interview.

In the film, the 73-year-old respected Chinese actress is Deng, a retired widow who grew up after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Like all the people of her age who were educated by the political movements, she dedicated entire life to her home country and to her family.

Now she spends her old age caring about her two grown-up sons and her elderly mother, until one day she starts receiving anonymous phone calls. The intruder is the burden of her past, the suffering she has caused to other people in a troubled period of China's history, that she will not be able to get rid of.

Chuang ru zhe was welcomed in Venice by enthusiastic applause of international cinema professionals.

"Why was the audience in Venice able to deeply understand this film? It is because Chuang ru zhe encourages reflection on the disorder and hardship caused in any person or society by the mistakes made in the past," Lv explained to Xinhua.

In the final scene, Deng who has been deeply shocked seems to ponder a question of "What happened to me?" "This is what I expect viewers to ask to themselves, to realize that what happened in the past still has an influence today," she said.

"All people, all countries and all societies, be them the best ones, make mistakes in the course of their history, it is normal. But after they have realized how big the consequences caused by wrong actions are, they have to courageously meditate on the past in order to cure those issues," Lv elaborated.

And this is fundamental, she stressed, to build a better future for the new generations, though with gradual steps. In the film, Deng's sons have an important role in highlighting the incomprehension between people living in very different historical moments.

She does not see a reason why her older son does not need her continuous help, and refuses intimate communication with her younger son who is homosexual. She is not able to understand them as she does not know how life can be otherwise.

"Many Chinese mothers still believe their sons and daughters belong to them, which is a thing of the past," Lv pointed out. The actress said she has interpreted many characters in her career, but Deng made her reflect about the true role of parents.

"Parents have the duty to help their children become adults, and once they are adults to consider them on the same level. So they have to respect their children, to know them and understand that what they want or can do is different sometimes from what parents would expect," she stressed.

But in today's Chinese society, she went on saying, many parents still like to stand in for their children. By doing so, they believe they are helping them, but in fact they are doing great harm.

"Knowledge of ourselves and of our children must be central in today's education. Reflection on history and society can help us build a better future. This is why I wish this film is not just presented as entertainment, but as a breathing space for everybody," the actress said. Endit

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