‘The Botanist’ review: Award-winning Chinese drama finds magic in nature

Dir/scr. Jing Yi. China. 2025. 96 minutes

A paean to nature which overflows with bucolic imagery however quickly runs dry on cohesive narrative, The Botanist nonetheless marks an auspicious debut for writer-director Jing Yi. Like many Chinese language indies, it takes place in a distant location – a village within the arid grasslands of Xinjiang close to the Kazakhstan border, one among China’s few multicultural areas comprising Han Chinese language, Kazakhs, Uyghurs, and varied different ethnic teams. But his celebration of panorama from the angle of a boy in thrall to its countless surprise stands aside from the earthy lyricism of such regional portraits as Wang Quebo’s Knife In The Clear Water (2016) or Huo Meng’s Residing The Land. Jing as an alternative shares the lucid dream sensibility of Kaili Blues (2015) and Lengthy Day’s Journey Into Evening (2018), each directed by his mentor Bi Gan.

Extra of an aesthetic expertise than an emotional one

The Botanist premiered within the Era Kplus part on the Berlin Movie Pageant, the place it was awarded the Grand Prize of the worldwide jury. Additional publicity at excessive profile occasions ought to comply with, however speciality market attraction is probably going modest at finest. For all its eye-catching qualities, the movie suffers from a slightness that’s extra attribute of a promising calling card than a fully-fledged breakthrough characteristic.

Set within the 2010s, the movie follows 13-year-old Kazakh boy Arsin (Yesl Jahseleh) who prefers communing with nature to enjoying with the opposite village youths. He’s an aspiring botanist who collects specimens and methodically takes notes about his discoveries. Even when he begins spending time with Meiyu (Ren Zihan), a precocious Han Chinese language woman whose father (Liu Yongqiang) owns the native retailer, it’s as a result of she reminds him of a uncommon plant. It’s all somewhat idyllic, but there’s a sense that the introspective Arsin is grappling with types of absence.

Arsin’s dad and mom are presumably working elsewhere, as he’s being raised by his grandmother (Sarhet Eramazan). His uncle, who was equally fascinated by crops, disappeared beneath mysterious circumstances a number of years in the past. Arsin herds a flock of sheep together with his brother (Jalen Nurdaolet) who has just lately returned to the village following a failed try to construct a life in Beijing, however the older sibling now principally lives by his cellphone. When Meiyu reveals that she can be attending boarding college in Shanghai, the information is quietly shattering.

The Botanist will be categorised as a coming-of-age drama, however it’s one the place the younger protagonist doesn’t really bear vital change or realisation. It’s an fascinating tackle a very populated sub-genre, however one that doesn’t depart Jing wherever to go after a sure juncture. As such, the movie engages in selection repetitions or goes off on surreal folkloric tangents that echo the magical realism of Emir Kusturica (Arsin has a number of encounters with a deadpan speaking horse that will embody the wandering spirit of his lacking uncle). These episodes are definitely atmospheric, however the movie typically appears disorganised and its dream logic just isn’t notably compelling, regardless of Jing’s effort to familiarise the viewers with nomadic beliefs by Arsin’s voice-over.

Because of this The Botanist is extra of an aesthetic expertise than an emotional one. Li Vanon’s cinematography evokes the ecocinema of Terrence Malick;  the depth and texture of his compositions vary from beautiful extensive photographs of pastures to the compex great thing about flora captured in delicate close-up. The ravishing palette is complemented by a spellbinding rating from Iranian composer Peyman Yazdanian, which includes pure sounds of rustling leaves and flowing water and ranges from mild Kazakh melodies to sturdy conventional preparations that ramp up the other-worldly atmosphere. Certainly, the movie’s visible and aural components are so transfixing that glimpses of modernity by way of cellphone photographs and movies really feel not solely intrusive, however even dystopian.

Inside the reverie, there’s a smattering of social-political commentary. Arsin sees no situation in forging a bond throughout ethnicities – “She could also be Han Chinese language, however so what?” – but others disagree. A scene during which Arsin helps Meiyu’s father check his store’s newly put in safety digital camera, the boy framed dispassionately within the monitor,  foreshadows how Xinjiang could be come to be described as a surveillance state by the last decade’s finish. There are additionally radio broadcasts declaring that Xinjiang is on the verge of financial growth because of the manufacturing of chemical substances and the mining of uncooked supplies, however fires within the panorama point out that prosperity will come at an environmental price. Such pointedness helps to floor an ethereal movie that’s too content material to float within the house between its protagonist’s lonely actuality and wealthy inside world.