Jia Zhang-ke

An ex-convict returns to his decaying hometown on the edge of the Gobi Desert, which is being cleared of strays before the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Tasked with catching the dogs, the former stunt motorcyclist, now on parole, finds himself drawn to a fierce, black mongrel. An unlikely and poignant bond forms between the two outcasts as they navigate the desolate landscape and the man's fraught past.

In modern Beijing, a fading film actress seeks to reclaim her fame through a glossy biopic, only to confront the illusions she’s built around herself. As the cameras roll, the line between her real life and her on-screen persona blurs. With quiet irony and melancholy, Mostly Sunny reflects on celebrity, memory, and the fragile performance of identity in an age of self-curation.

China, 2003. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed journalism intern Han Dong decides to change the fate of 100 million people with a single article.

In "Spaces #2", 7 internationally acclaimed directors shot, after commissioning by the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, a short film at home, making their own timely comment on the new reality that we live in. The project is inspired by the book "Species of Spaces" by the French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist, Georges Perec and the days of quarantine. The idea is to create a film at home, using the environment, the people or the animals in that space. The only

An engaging drama about several unemployed Shanxi coalminers looking for work. (imdb)

Since 2002, Carvalho interviewed a number of famous movie directors about the craft of filmmaking, asking their thoughts on cinema. One last session on poor region of Brazil and the impact of movies on our culture starts Carvalho's search on a decade span.

Three men living in the Eastern most island of China go on a road trip to the Western most end of the country, and facing crises of love, friendship, and faith on their journey to the West. (imdb)

Documentary of the life & filmmaking of Jia Zhang-Ke from the Brazilian Walter Salles. Reflections on transformation of Chinese society, towns, family, the cultural revolution and globalization ("americanization"). Insights of the actors and on the places of his movies. (imdb)

Informed by fortune teller Blind Liu that he has been hexed, down-on-his-luck mechanic Chen Chuan is determined to turn his life around. Soon, Chen becomes convinced that it is his wife's infidelity that has cast a dark shadow over his live, and determines to kill her in hopes of breaking the jinx. (hkcinemagic.com)

Jia's In Public starts as a distant echo to his groundbreaking Xiao Wu (1997): in a train station. Yet, instead of following the evolutions of his central character in a variety of public and private spaces in which he seems to "fit" less and less, Jia assembled 30 shots, recorded over a period of 45 days, of anonymous passers-by, travelers, railroad and bus workers, in and around the small mining town of Datung, in Inner Mongolia. (sensesofcinema)