Still Life

Director Jia Zhang-ke specializes in deliberately-paced portraits of people trapped in a radically changing—or disintegrating—society. Platform (2000) was set in a rural wasteland, while The World (2004) unfurled in a decaying amusement park housing replicas of famous monuments. Still Life takes place in Fengjie, one of the many towns along the Yangtze River being systematically demolished before becoming totally submerged in the waters raised by the enormous Three Gorges hydroelectric dam. The plot, such as it is, follows both a man who comes to Fengjie seeking a wife and daughter he hasn't seen for more than a decade, as well as a woman who arrives looking for her husband, a government manager she's not been in touch with for a couple years. But their respective wanderings are merely the pretext for quiet, ruminative encounters with various people they happen upon—solitary children, underpaid workers, and elderly residents being brusquely evicted from houses that will shortly be torn down. In its portrait of people living a stagnant existence filled with uncertainty about what's coming next, Still Life is a compelling mood piece, a kind of Far Eastern version of a Beckett play. An intriguing addition to the director's admittedly rarefied canon, this is recommended. [Note: DVD extras include a second feature film by Jia, 2006's Dong (68 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a solid foreign film.] (F. Swietek)