Thursday, March 24 | 5:30 & 8:30 pm
Friday, March 25 | 8 pm
A searching and ultimately poignant meditation on personal and national identity, Mountains May Depart views the spectacular financial, cultural, and technological evolution of contemporary China through the eyes of one resourceful and optimistic woman. The film’s episodic narrative follows Tao—played with sparkling warmth and charm by Tao Zhang, wife of the film’s director, Jia Zhangke—through three significant periods in her life, set in 1999, 2014, and 2025. Jia shoots each of these sequences in a different aspect ratio, subtly shifting the film’s style, tone, and color palette as the narrative moves through time and space. Filmed in Jia’s hometown of Fenyang, in China’s Northern provinces, the first sequence focuses on Tao’s relationship with her two suitors—brash entrepreneur, Zhang, and humble coal-miner, Liangzi. The choices they make, both romantic and professional, shape their futures in large and small ways as each strives for love, success, and connection amid a rapidly changing global economy.
Director Jia Zhangke 2015 China/France/Japan 131 minutes NR DCP
