Still Life, winner of the Golden Lion at the 2006 Venice Film Festival, is an empathetic portrait of those left behind by a modernizing society and, as in director Jia Zhangke’s earlier films (Platform, Unknown Pleasures, The World), it is a unique combination of documentary and fiction.
Owing to the construction of the Three Gorges hydro project, significant changes have come to the town of Fengjie. Countless families that had lived there for generations have had to relocate to other cities; and Fengjie’s old town, which has a 2,000-year history, has been torn down and submerged forever, while its new neighborhood hasn’t been finished yet. A man and woman visit the town to locate their estranged spouses, and, in the process, must decide what is worth salvaging in their own lives, and what they need to let go.
Alongside his latest film Caught in the Tides, the JBFC will present repertory screenings of classic Jia Zhangke films A Touch of Sin and Still Life.
