Written language leads the film script

But, as every story begins somewhere, the filmmaker said the harvest of today started with an admiration for the Chinese idiom and its reflection on culture. From this starting point, her debut movie Songs of Beijing creates a circular thread between cinematography, music, speech, language and image. 

The movie consists of a series of interviews with ordinary people who, in the context of the documentary, sit in a simple chair carved with Chinese symbols. They are invited to talk and, at some point, share a song from their lives. As it happens, they reveal fragments of their stories and what makes each song so intimate to them.

For Moura Barba, diversity was central to her project. The film, she explained, is grounded in her encounters with several of China's 56 recognized ethnic groups, experiences she sought out before and during her master's studies.

"I sought diversity," she said. "One of the main goals was to look for it in the film, which offers just a small sample of Chinese cultural plurality. Because when we think about China and the countries of Eastern Asia, many — especially people who don't know China — often have the illusion of uniformity."

The first voice to appear belongs to Weng Yilan, who opens the film by singing a Brazilian folk song in Portuguese. The lyrics read: "If this street, if this street were mine, I would order it to be paved with little stones, with little diamond stones, for my love, for my love to pass." 

It is the only Brazilian song in the movie, serving as the author's subtle signature. In the background, Moura Barba's own voice gives the command to start recording, just as the title appears on the screen.

From then on, a range of Chinese voices share their experiences and emotions through music. Each testimony, whether spoken or sung, is linked in some way to images of daily life and memory.

One of the most striking figures is Li Youhua, an elderly woman born during the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45). 

As a child, she was forced to move from village to village while her father fought in the war. He returned from the conflict five years later, bringing with him a song that marked her early years. It told the story of Erxiao, a 13-year-old boy who fought and died as a soldier, defending the village she had fled with her mother.

"Erxiao, cunningly, was at the front, guiding the enemy straight into our ambush," she recalled in song. "From four corners fire came. The enemy turned their weapons on Erxiao, who fell on a great rock. Poor Erxiao, only 13 years old, tragically killed."

This theme of resistance, present in other testimonies, contrasts with lighter voices such as Xiao Ai, a young girl who sings brightly about the beauty of the Hulunbuir Plains, from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. 

"In the Hulunbuir Plains, white clouds and flowers float in the air and in my heart," she sings, noting that she cannot sing so loudly at home because it annoys her parents.

The documentary also features Pan Yuzhen, from the Miao ethnic minority from Guizhou province. Her testimony forms a centerpiece of the film's thematic structure. She speaks of the embroidery on her traditional garments. "The butterfly submerged in the moonlight brings blessings and health through its gaze," she sings in the song's traditional melody.