Programmed May 2025

Directed by Jia Zhangke

Among the greatest filmmakers working today, Chinese master Jia Zhangke is the foremost cinematic chronicler of the vast changes that have transformed his country over the last half century in its transition from communism to a globalized, increasingly market-based society. Beginning his career as an underground filmmaker working without state approval, he first attracted attention for his mid-length student film Xiao Shan Going Home , which led to his revelatory feature debut Xiao Wu —the first installment in his Hometown Trilogy, followed by Platform and Unknown Pleasures , all set in his home province of Shanxi. While he transitioned to state-sanctioned filmmaking with 2004’s The World , his subsequent films—including modern masterworks like Still Life and Ash Is Purest White —remain deeply critical of China’s…