Mountains May Depart

March 20, 2016 · Knoxville Museum of Art · 2:00 p.m.

The new film from Mainland master Jia Zhang-ke jumps from the recent past to the speculative near-future as it examines how China’s economic boom has affected the bonds of family, tradition, and love.

China, 1999. In Fenyang, childhood friends Liangzi, a coal miner, and Zhang, the owner of a gas station, are both in love with Tao, the town beauty. Tao eventually marries the wealthier Zhang and they have a son he names Dollar. 2014. Tao is divorced and her son emigrates to Australia with his business magnate father. Australia, 2025. 19-year-old Dollar no longer speaks Chinese and can barely communicate with his now bankrupt father. All that he remembers of his mother is her name.

“Jia has often focused on those cast aside by convulsive change; this film, which expands the horizons of both time and space, and follows characters who have been swept up in the modernizing tide, is perhaps his most emotionally direct yet, held together by an enormously moving performance by his wife and regular star, Zhao Tao.” — Dennis Lim, Art Forum

About the Filmmaker

Jia Zhangke was born in Fenyang, Shanxi Province, China, and studied at the Beijing Film Academy. He made his directorial debut with the feature Xiao Wu (’97). His subsequent films include the documentaries Dong (’06), Useless (’07), and I Wish I Knew (’10), and the features Platform (’00), Unknown Pleasures (’02), The World (’04), Still Life (’06), 24 City (’08), and A Touch of Sin (’13).