The film is set in the 1910s when two major families in the interior of Brazil competed for land. Accompanied by heavy and melodious music, we saw a little boy walking alone on a gloomy path. As he walked, he was muttering to himself: My name is Baigu, and I am trying to recall a story about me, my brother and the shirt in the wind. Only when we see the end of the film do we know that this is the narrative of a deceased person. Next, a few sculpturally static figures gradually appeared: a middle-aged couple, a young man, and a little boy, who is the self-reported Bergu. They were motionless, just staring at a white shirt with sad eyes, which hung on the clothesline and was blown up and down by the wind. Only Bergou's father said something confusingly simple: the blood stains turned yellow.
From this, we knew that the shirt was stained with blood, and we probably guessed that this is a story about revenge. As the plot slowly unfolds, we know that the Bergu family and another local family, the Fei family, have become feuds because of the fight for land, and the two families are killing each other. According to their rules, after the blood stains on the deceased’s shirt turned yellow, the deceased’s family would kill a member of the other’s family to avenge the blood and hatred, and so on. The latest victim is Pergu’s eldest brother, so the mission of revenge falls on Pergu’s second brother, Dongnu. Dongnu obeyed his father's order and killed one of Fei's sons. In this way, Dongnu naturally became the Fei family's next target of revenge. As the blind grandfather of the Fei family said to Dongnu: From now on your life will be divided into two parts, the life you live and the rest of your life. Young you will never taste the taste of love.
And Dongnu's fate was finally broken. The tone of the film, which had been dimmed, also began to brighten at this time, even a little colorful. This all stems from the appearance of a woman: Carla. Like most folk artists, Kara’s "stunt" is nothing more than a fire show, but to Pergu and Tonu, who have been living in a closed life, it seems so magical and great. Bergu regards Kara as the incarnation of a mermaid, and Dongnu is in love with Kara.
The structure of the whole film is also like a reincarnation, and the end of the film is back to its beginning: In the dark field, Pergu walks alone, muttering his dreams. At this time, the gunfire rang, and Berg's life and dreams ended. Dongnu decided to abandon the mission of revenge in order to get rid of the fate brought to him by this land. Regardless of his father's threats, he left the home like a meteor, looking for the sea. For him, there is not only the mermaid Kara there, but also his brand new life will begin there.
The pictures of this movie are beautiful and vivid, with a spinning bullock cart, a shirt flipping over, a swinging swing, etc. These imagery shots are all for a long time. And I believe that for director Salas, how to shoot these beautiful shots is not a difficult task. Perhaps the biggest problem is how to deal with the slightly old-fashioned themes. But it can be seen that Salas is very strong. Although the theme is old-fashioned, the narrative is tactfully and ingeniously. It's a revenge story, but it doesn't focus on the revenge itself; although the killing continues, but it does not exaggerate blood; the characters are full of hatred, but in the end they move towards tolerance. In my opinion, this last point is particularly important. Like the handed down works in many dramas and movies, the human power and brilliance that permeated "Behind the Sun" finally moved viewers of us. Perhaps it is because of this. Although this film originated from the writings of an Albanian novelist and was adapted into a script by a Brazilian director and filmed, to me, a Chinese audience, it feels so real, as if you are right by your side. .
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