‘Jia Zhang-ke, a guy from Fenyang – Walter Salles’

(BR, 2014, 105’, OV, ond. st. EN)

“Jia Zhang-ke, a guy from Fenyang” is the portrait of a young Chinese director who has become one of the most important filmmakers of our time. The documentary, directed by Walter Salles, dwells on the question of memory (individual as well as collective) and cinema.

For “A guy from Fenyang”, Jia Zhang-ke returns to his birthplace, the Shanxi province in Northern China, and to the locations of his films. His actors, friends, and close collaborators join him as Jia Zhang-ke retraces the inspirational sources behind “Xiao Wu”, “Platform”, “Unknown Pleasures”, “The World”, “Still Life”, “24 City”, and “A Touch of Sin”, among others. Through these films, the reflection of a country in the grip of rapid change gradually reveals itself.
 
Filmed entirely in China and most specifically in the places that Jia Zhang-ke knows intimately, the documentary portrays the profound and complex relation between the director and his environment.
“Jia Zhang-ke, a guy from Fenyang” was shot in Fenyang, Pingyao, Hong Nan- che, and other cities and villages near the Shanxi region, and also in Beijing, at the World Park, the Film Academy, the Fine Arts School, and Jia Zhang-ke’s production company, Xstream Pictures.  The interviews in the film were conducted by Walter Salles and Jean Michel Frodon. The documentary also gave rise to a book, “The World of Jia Zhang-ke”, edited by Jean Michel Frodon.