Directed by Jia Zhangke • 2020 • China

From master director Jia Zhangke comes a vital document of Chinese society and its transformation since 1949. Jia interviews three prominent authors—Jia Pingwa, Yu Hua, and Liang Hong—born in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, respectively. In their stories, we hear of the dire circumstances they faced in their rural villages and small towns, and the substantial political effort undertaken to address it, from the social revolution of the ’50s through the unrest of the late ’80s. In their faces, we see full volumes left unsaid. Weaving it all together with his usual brilliance, Jia constructs an indispensable account of a country navigating seismic social change.