Film Company Debut Packed with Emotion, Drama, Political and Moral Issues
by Randall Murphree
April 13, 2004
(AgapePress) - A young woman in China gives birth to her first child, a beautiful daughter named Chu Lee. But the very act itself puts both mother and daughter at risk."First she got pregnant! Then she got religion!" snarls Chu Lee's grandfather. He fears the authorities, especially since his unwanted grandchild is a girl. So he reports his own daughter to the government, telling them, "She has no license for that child. She ran off with the baby."
In 1979, China adopted policies to stop the nation's rapid population growth. Families were to have only one child, and mothers had to seek government permission to get pregnant. If an unwed mother -- like Chu Lee's mom -- gave birth to a girl, both were endangered, the child likely to abandonment and the mother to banishment from her family.
Home Beyond the Sun is a gripping drama with its painful genesis in that birthing room of little Chu Lee. In the second scene of the movie, her mother is gunned down in the street, and Secret Police Chief Khan takes baby Chu Lee to a state orphanage.
What ensues is a remarkable series of events -- and a few real miracles -- that reveal several truths: the dangers faced by Christians in China, the morally bankrupt family policies of China, and how love and faith may still conquer all.
Chu Lee lives in the orphanage until age eight, when she meets Jenna Wilton, an idealistic 19-year-old American who goes to China to teach in a government academy for boys. On the streets, Jenna encounters Mei Ming, the orphanage mother with her young girls.
As Jenna and Mei Ming develop a friendship, they discover that both are Christians, so Mei Ming allows Jenna some freedom in visiting with the girls, and especially spending time with Chu Lee, the oldest. Jenna identifies with Chu Lee because Jenna herself was given up by her birth parents, and her adoptive parents died in an auto accident.
Mei Ming tells Jenna not to hope that Chu Lee will ever be adopted, because she is too old. American adoptive parents want babies. At first Jenna determines to adopt Chu Lee herself. When that is impossible, she is unrelenting in her drive to find an American couple to adopt Chu Lee. Her search and its resolution prove the value of perseverance, and reveal to Jenna some things about her own past.
Producer Offers Advance Church Screenings
"This new film is an outstanding resource for churches on several levels," said American Family Association president Tim Wildmon. "Not only is it a great family movie, it educates us regarding how some people suffer for their faith. Its political intrigue and deep emotion also make it useful as an outreach tool for the local church."
The 90-minute film would be a perfect selection as a feature for Mother's Day banquets or family night movies at church. Because one of its main players is a child, it can be used to teach children about the persecution suffered by Christians in many other countries.
Garden City Pictures (GCP), the new company which produced the film, offers a kit to help churches promote the project -- bulletin inserts, door hangers, posters, and a press release (available through GCP). Churches may schedule the film in advance of its May 18 street date.
Executive producer Byron Jones said, "I had heard of Christian families who had adopted little girls from China, but I never knew the story behind them. I run a mission for the poor in Haiti, so I know how bad conditions can be for children in Third World countries."
Home Beyond the Sun is based on a true story. Jones said, "I knew this was a story that had to be told." John Patus wrote the screenplay. Both men had previously worked with Cloud Ten Pictures, the company which brought Left Behind and Tribulation Force to the big screen. Jones was a V.P. at Cloud Ten, and is co-founder of GCP. Special Effects Academy Award winner Colin Chilvers is director.
This film deserves major attention from those who search for decent family films with high entertainment value and solid moral content. Home Beyond the Sun sets the bar high on both counts.
Randall Murphree, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is editor of AFA Journal, a monthly publication of American Family Association. Home Beyond the Sun (in video and DVD format) is scheduled for release in retail outlets on May 18, 2004.
