International Herald Tribune
September 22, 2006

Toronto: Jia Zhangke is the most discreet of prize winners, a slip of a director who leads China’s sixth generation of filmmakers. “Still Life,” shot in Fengjie, the heart of China’s controversial Three Gorges Dam project, was the surprise Golden Lion winner of the Venice festival. It was not a popular choice. Turned down by Cannes, “Still Life” had entered Venice on tiptoe, billed as the surprise film. Reviewers were mostly dismissive. “Almost zero plot but molto mood,” Variety reported. “It will appeal to the most faithful of the director’s camp followers and no one else.” Indeed Jia, 36, is known mostly through festivals where his zero plot but powerful portraits of contemporary China have commanded attention. “Xiao Wu,” or Pickpocket (1997), was about rootless youths; “Zhantai,” or Platform (2000), chronicled a roving theater troupe that falls under the spell of Western music.