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(a tutti i cinefili discreti e silenziosi) Jia Zhang-Ke è un esponente attivo del cinema indipendente cinese. Nato nel 1970 a Fengyang, a small town in Shanxi province to eighteen he started studying painting and became interested in literature, writing his first novel in 1991. Two years later he entered the Beijing Film Academy where he graduated. In 1995 he founded the Youth Experimental Film Group, the first independent organization of its kind in China. The debut for this young filmmaker takes several films dealing with the urbanization of northern China and then continues with "The World" of 2004 instead of dealing with life in a megalithic entertainment theme park in Beijing. To turn the world takes time and money.
It's all nice and ready for the suburbs Beijing: small scale there are the Pyramids, the Eiffel Tower to the Taj Mahal. "The World" is a gigantic amusement theme park where thousands of boys and girls working there between guards and human actors varies. They live together in the world, there are born and die jealous love hopes. This film is a profound reflection on alienation of man into a mad metropolis like Beijing. And 'the look of Jia Zhang-Ke place that sits on a non-place that would be a perfect setting for a modern epic of the post. In 2006 it was the turn of "Still Life , literally, still life, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival . “Still life” mostra la Cina moderna con i suoi cambiamenti, la sua povertà, lo sviluppo economico che ha toccato solo marginalmente le classi più povere, per esempio tutti ora hanno il cellulare, ma non tutti possono permettersi una vita dignitosa. L’incipit di questo meraviglioso film è dato da una carrellata di visi solcati dalla fatica e da inquadrature di corpi abbrutiti dal lavoro e dalle privazioni. Questo film narra delle storie di Han Sanming, un minatore dello Shanxi, che si reca a Fengjie in cerca della ex moglie che non vede da sedici anni e dell'infermiera Shen Hong, alla ricerca del marito che non torna a casa da due anni. Queste storie servono ad analizzare l'impatto che la costruzione della diga delle Tre Gole ha avuto the population of the old village of Fengjie, partially submerged, even if both are searching for a loved one, their lives and their research are very different. Inanimate objects, just the "still life" that characterizes the chapters in which the film is divided, a symbol of opportunity to socialize with other people and show that Han Sanming is being marginalized and rejected the liquor and cigarettes that he offers while Shen Hong, does not offer anything to others but keeps to himself that he found the tea. The integration of Han will be through the gift of a sweet and from that moment you will find a great solidarity among his fellow workers, so that will go away with them, while at the end Sheng will leave alone. The two protagonists could also represent the two aspects of the new China that is anchored to the past, which will be submerged as it was the city, and the present of those Shen as you leave it all behind. Displace, in a film so grounded in reality as to seem almost a socio-ethnographic study, the alien and surreal elements that sometimes appear in the film. So two sad stories of love and distance. In the village of Fengjie, desolate place, and under water due to the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, Han Sanming is a man who arrives with the aim of finding his wife and daughter but finds himself working as a breaker to afford the stay. Shen Hong is a nurse instead of searching for the husband who is an engineer at Fengjie and has not seen for two years and on which discovers unpleasant truths that will lead to an important life choice. "Still Life" tells two love stories with a minimalist style that contrasts with a cross on the social reality of China today. In this arid landscape, portrait and fear felt by the director with participation by a camera sensitive and often still, they consume these two stories subdued, hushed and quiet. The camera follows the emotional tone of the story and agreed to the feelings of the two protagonists who do not shout il proprio dolore. L’impressione che deriva da queste immagini liriche poetiche e surreali è di commossa partecipazione che, insieme all’acqua che ha sommerso il villaggio di Fengjie, pare aver investito il cuore dei suoi abitanti e dei due visitatori. Il vecchio villaggio di Fengjie, é stato abbandonato perchè al centro di un territorio dove é stata costruita un'immensa diga ed è completamente sommerso dall’acqua. Un minatore ritorna al suo vecchio paese in cerca dell'ex moglie e quando s'incontrano decidono di risposarsi. Shen Hong, un'infermiera torna a Fengjie per cercare il marito che non si fa vedere da due anni, ma, dopo aver ballato insieme decide di lasciarlo e gli chiede il divorzio. Han Sanming compie in nave tutto the journey from Shanxi to Fengjie for the sole purpose of finding the daughter he has never seen. The only clue he has is a package of cigarettes with the written address of his ex-wife. Thus begins his travels around the city. Shen Hong hand with the help of an old friend of her husband will be able to review the same and to announce its decision about their marriage. Han discovers that the route where his wife lived was flooded in the first phase of construction of the dam. So in order to find his wife and daughter, began working as a breaker with other workers who are literally in pieces for buildings that have been displaced because they are being flooded by water trapped the mammoth dam. Shen discovered the altars of her husband, an engineer heading the project, demolition of part of the city that will be submerged in a relationship with another woman. As it turns out that in the Han Chinese box has been abandoned by a wife he had bought for 3,000 yuan, after it was discovered by the authorities. In fact China, especially in poor regions, women in excess are sold to the highest bidder. Nevertheless Han's husband is a lot better than that of Shen and the end of history will do justice to his goodness. The good husband illegitimate but is forgiven, but legitimized faithless husband is punished. That of "Still Life" is a film made up of silences and sympathy to the drama of these people filmed and narrated: it would almost seem that in the same way that the city was under water, so the warmth of its inhabitants was covered with layers and layers of progress. The criticism is subtle, almost whispered, nothing to do with shouting and insults, the story unfolds against the backdrop of two love stories. The scenes that I have imprinted in the mind are like photographs: Shen Hong thoughtfully gazing at the magnificent panorama of the Three Gorges disfigured by a concrete tower and suddenly almost as if to respond to the wishes of the girl, the horrible tower would take off like a spaceship returning the eyes and soul, the beautiful landscape, and that of Han Sanming that ended his quest, is to return to his native mines in Shanxi and in the background a tightrope worker moves from a building demolition in the next walking on a wire suspended in empty. The latter is a powerful image-metaphor of modern China, a country that is in balance between ancient and modern, landscape conservation and technological development. Just like an acrobat, the border between remaining in balance and fall is very unstable. As shown in the film, the press of a few notes on the one hand there is the image of Mao and the other that of the Three Gorges. To realize the immense work you need to submerge the city of Fengjie. The purpose of this site is seen through the eyes of two people both looking for partners and actually shows the other face of the economic miracle: the dam will flood an area so beautiful and even on a note card. This film tells the story of humanity that does not even remotely imagine the existence of the "right to happiness" with a concussion and a lyricism that touches the heights of poetry and pictures where there are touches of surrealism, such as man in suitcase or the flying saucer.
by Mariano Lizzadri
