The screening on 27 March is part of a double bill with Dong and will be introduced by Sabrina Yu (Chinese Independent Film Archive, CIFA).
Still Life stands as one of Jia Zhangke’s most celebrated works and a defining achievement of his career. Awarded the Golden Lion at the 2006 Venice Film Festival, the film marks the culmination of his early exploration of China’s vast social and geographical transformations, while also signalling a new confidence in narrative form and visual composition.
Set against the monumental backdrop of the Three Gorges Dam project when millions of people had to be relocated, Still Life interweaves two parallel stories. A coal miner, Han Sanming, arrives in the doomed town of Fengjie, Chongqing in search of the wife and daughter he has not seen for sixteen years. Meanwhile, Shen Hong, a nurse, comes to the same town looking for her estranged husband. As buildings are demolished and communities dismantled around them, both characters navigate a terrain shaped by loss, impermanence, and emotional distance.
