Mainland Chinese
director Jia
Zhangke's Still
Life (aka Sanxia
Haoren), a last
minute entry
into the 2006
Venice Film
Festival,
eventually won
the Golden Lion
award thanks to
its top-notch
cinematography
and wonderful
storytelling.
Still Life
interweaves the
story of a miner
(Han Sanming)
who travels
thousands of
miles to a town
near the Yangtze
River to look
for his ex-wife
and a nurse
fetching her
husband who has
been working at
the river
without sending
a single word
home. While the
film does not
let these two
characters cross
paths, together
they reflect
changes in
people's lives
brought by the
Three Gorges
Dam, which
flooded villages
near the Yangtze
River and led to
the emergence of
some new
settlements.
Already
acclaimed for
his earlier
works, most of
which also star
Han Sanming and
Zhao Tao, Jia is
probaby the best
known Sixth
Generation
director. With
Still Life, he
continues his
probing
grassroots
studies of
Chinese life.
Jia's previous
acclaimed titles
Platform (2000)
and The World
(2004) also
competed at the
Venice Film
Festival. He has
also set a
record for
Chinese
directors by
having two films
selected for the
Venice Film
Festival, the
other entry
being his
documentary Dong
in the Horizons
section.
