2018 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 5 – Jia Zhangke’s Ash Is Purest White

An habitual of both Cannes and Venice, now in his third decade of filmmaking, Jia Zhangke first arrived in Cannes for 2002’s Unknown Pleasures, then followed that with 2008’s 24 City, 2010’s Un Certain Regard selected I Wish I Knew, 2013’s A Touch of Sin and Mountains May Depart in 2015. This year, he presents his almost two decade spanning Ash Is Purest White – with wife-actress Zhao Tao owning the screen.

With the first screenings taking place yesterday night, this two plus hour opus tackles several issues: feminism, expropriation, the changing face of China, and survivalism and takes the gangster subgenre in a new terrain in a mostly fiction frame (there is a splash of docu elements with lush design via Eric Gautier). Almost all of our jury sent in their grades and it looks to be among the favorites so far and in my case, a film I look forward to revisiting and deconstructing.

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