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Still Life
Director Jia Zhang-ke’s empathetic portrait of those left behind by a modernizing society is a breathtakingly poetic hybrid of documentary and fiction. Like the recent Up the Yangtze, China’s Three Gorges hydro project is the backdrop for Still Life. Jia charts the great changes that come to the town of Fengjie, and the countless families that have lived here for generations who have had to relocate to other cities. Fengjie’s old town, which has a 2,000-year history, has been torn down and submerged forever, but its new neighborhood hasn’t been finished yet. There are still things that need to be salvaged, but also things that must be left behind.
Life-changing choices face Sanming, a miner in search of his ex-wife of 16 years, and Shen Hong, a nurse who has come to Fengjie to look for her husband who she hasn’t seen in two years. Sanming and Shen will find who they’re looking for, but in the process they will have to decide what is worth salvaging in their lives and what they need to let go of.
“The setting speaks; it's still-life. Jia's sensitivity to location has the focused purity of landscape filmmakers like James Benning and Peter Hutton. Even more than the winding river and the misty mountains, Still Life vibrates with traces of human presence—deserted construction sites, shabby cluttered rooms, and moldering factory works. (The Chinese title translates as "The Good People of Three Gorges.") —J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
“A Human Triumph. One of the World’s Most Important Filmmakers.” —Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
Cast & Crew
Director: Jia Zhang-ke
Producer: Xu Pengie, Wang Tianyun, Zhu Jiong
Editor: Kong Jinlei
Screenwriter: Jia Zhangke
Cinematographer: Yu Likwai
Awards: Venice International Film Festival 2006 (Golden Lion)
Music: Lim Giong
Principal Cast: Zhao Tao, Han Sanming
Filmography: Dong (2006); The World (2004); Unknown Pleasures (2002); Platform (2000); Xiao Wu (1998)
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