Platform

Jia Zhang-ke won the Vancouver fest’s Dragons and Tigers Award, given to an emerging Asian director, for his debut feature Xiao Wu (1998). Platform, his second feature, established Jia as a major player in world cinema, and “might be the greatest film to come out of Mainland China” (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader). Set in Jia’s native Fenyang in Shanxi Province, the film offers an epic social history of China in radical cultural and economic transformation from Maoism to market capitalism. This transition is charted through the trials and tribulations of a troupe of young performers who, in the years between 1979 and 1989, themselves transform from the Fenyang Peasant Cultural Group, performing rousing propaganda songs, into the All Star Rock and Breakdance Electronic Revue, playing cheesy ’80s synth pop. Jia’s narrative approach is episodic and elliptical; his visual style rigorous, distanced, and observant. “One of the richest films of the past decade . . . It’s Pop Art as history . . . Jia has a strong visual style (based on long fixed-camera ensemble takes) and a powerful set of concerns” (J. Hoberman, Village Voice). “Jia presents a startling precise definition of globalization” (Richard Brody, New Yorker). “This is a colossal achievement” (Tony Rayns, Vancouver I.F.F). Colour, 35mm, in Mandarin and Shanxi with English subtitles. 150 mins.