Get to know Jia Zhangke, cinema’s essential chronicler of the epochal upheavals in China’s recent history. In the following interview, recorded in 2025, Jia discusses key influences like Sergei Eisenstein and Michelangelo Antonioni, the spontaneity he unlocked by switching from celluloid to digital video, the way his approaches to fiction and documentary have blurred over time, and his long collaboration with actor Zhao Tao.