Ivan: The people or places we find while preparing one film always seem to lead us the next one.
Linfeng: We met Luo Tianqing while shooting our first documentary in Hengyang, my hometown. Then he became our protagonist for White Bird, 3 years ago. For From Tomorrow on, I Will, he did street casting with the two of us in Beijing and found our protagonist (Li Chuan).
Ivan: It was similar with the underground apartments. Three years ago, we went to an underground housing block near your place in Beijing to buy used equipment, and I couldn‘t stop thinking about it and shooting there. Coming from Belgrade, I knew what a bomb shelter looks like, but it was interesting and touching to see how people had turned those places into their homes.
Linfeng: I thought casting would be the hardest part of this film, but it turned out to be the easiest. The location permissions, renting prices, and organisation in Beijing were so much more difficult than in the south.
Ivan: We kept saying we’ll never shoot in Beijing again, but I guess the harshness of this city and the shooting itself were somehow necessary for the film.
Linfeng: Just like the strange combination of our personalities, which are like ying and yang, but balance out in a good way, even if it gets tense.
Wu Linfeng is a director and producer based in Beijing. Ivan Marković is a cinematographer (including for the new film by Angela Schanelec I Was at Home, But…, Berlinale Competition 2019) and director based in Berlin. They worked together for the first time on the short film White Bird, which screened at the Berlinale in 2016. Chun nuan hua kai (From Tomorrow on, I Will) is their first feature collaboration.
