Jia Zhang-ke

This decades-spanning epic follows a woman's unwavering love for her former partner, set against the backdrop of China's immense social and economic changes from 2001 to the present. Starting in Datong, the film tracks her persistent search for him after he leaves, illustrating her journey across the country and the profound emotional cost of time, separation, and modernization.

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

Filmmaker Jia Zhangke chronicles his local literature festival in Shanxi, China which includes a multi-generational roster of the country's most esteemed writers.

A fierce woman falls in love with a local mobster in a declining mining town. During a violent rivalry, she fires a gun to protect him, resulting in a five-year prison sentence. Upon her release, she embarks on a journey across a transformed China to track down the man she sacrificed her freedom for, exploring themes of loyalty, betrayal, and the relentless passage of time.

A short film omnibus featuring the work of five directors representing five countries involved in the 2017 BRICS summit, an annual international relations conference held between Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. (imdb)

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

In late 1990s Fenyang, Shen Tao is caught between two suitors: Zhang, an ambitious businessman, and Liangzi, a coal miner. Her eventual choice sets off a decades-long ripple effect. Spanning three distinct time periods—1999, 2014, and 2025—the narrative explores the evolving landscape of China, the loss of cultural identity, and the enduring complexity of family ties across generations.

Jia Zhangke's short film for Greenpeace East Asia depicts the effects of air pollution in northeast China, a region frequently blanketed in dangerous levels of air pollution. 'Smog Journeys' traces two families from two different backgrounds; one a mining family in Hebei province, and the other a trendy middle class family in Beijing. Both face a similar fate. Air pollution is one of China's most pressing environmental and health issues. (imdb)

This powerful anthology film weaves together four separate but thematically linked stories based on real-life events in modern China, exploring the anger and violence that stem from economic disparity and social injustice. From a miner fighting corruption to a factory worker's quiet desperation, the tales depict marginalized individuals driven to extreme acts by a rapidly changing, unforgiving society.

This lyrical documentary serves as an elegiac portrait of Shanghai through the 20th century. By weaving together the testimonies of eighteen people—from descendants of historical figures to former residents of the city—it explores the shifting political and social landscape of China. The narrative connects personal memories with cinematic history to capture the soul of a city in constant flux.

A state-owned munitions factory in Chengdu is demolished to make way for a luxury apartment complex. Through a blend of real interviews and fictionalized monologues, the film chronicles the lives of three generations of workers. It captures the transition from a socialist planned economy to a market-driven society, serving as an elegiac tribute to the collective memory of a vanishing era.

A short film, ten years, two women, and one word

This documentary follows the painter Liu Xiaodong's latest project. Liu is painting 12 peasants from the Sanxia (Three Gorge) region and 12 models in Bangkok. The common feature of those two seemingly very different groups of people is their life's dependence on the river running around their hometown. This documentary was shot at the same time as director Jia Zhangke's feature film San Xia Hao Ren (Still Life).

In the town of Fengjie, which is gradually being submerged by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, two strangers arrive seeking their missing spouses. As they navigate the disappearing landscape, the film captures the intersection of personal heartbreak and massive industrial change. It is a contemplative look at the human cost of progress and the fragility of connections in a shifting world.

Set in a Beijing theme park featuring scaled-down replicas of global landmarks, the story follows the lives and romantic entanglements of its young staff. Caught between modern aspirations and their rural origins, the characters navigate feelings of isolation and longing. The film serves as a poignant social commentary on globalization and the artificial nature of contemporary urban life.

In the industrial city of Datong, two disaffected nineteen-year-old friends drift through a landscape of unemployment and aimlessness. They spend their days on motorbikes, obsessed with Western pop culture and short-term thrills to escape their bleak reality. The narrative explores the disillusionment of a generation facing the uncertainties of a rapidly changing, globalized China.

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)

A group of Mainland Chinese villagers struggling with poverty see a potential solution in an organized, illegal journey to a prosperous Western country. They pay handsomely and subject themselves to harsh conditions, crammed into a large truck container for weeks. The film provides a visceral and sobering look at the desperation driving economic migration and the extreme human cost of this clandestine international trade. It is a stark, realistic portrayal of survival and the pursuit of a better life.

A skilled thief, disillusioned with his life, finds a strange sense of purpose and intellectual justification in his criminal acts. His meticulously executed pickpocketing provides a temporary escape from isolation. He drifts between the thrill of the crime and the loneliness of his existence, eventually finding his path intersecting with a young woman who cares for his dying mother. This minimalist, intense character study explores morality, redemption, and the nature of freedom and confinement.

The movie describes the process by which a young man coming to Beijing from Kanan looking for a better life loses his hopes and decides to go back... (KG)