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By Glenn Dunks
Jia Zhangke is one of my favorite working directors. His dramatic features about contemporary Chinese life in the face of widespread modern upheavals are frequently works of masterful elegance. As rich in political and social context as they are well-acted and beautifully crafted. His works of non-fiction present something dramatically quieter; naturally a bit harder to engage with; like his 2007 garment factory doc Useless, modest and observational.
In many ways, his latest film shares that lack of narrative flare. Something that no doubt added to its quieter festival reception in 2020. But Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue nonetheless has something of a keener eye and so, even when the importance of its subjects may be lost on a western audience, it finds burrows of ideas that flourish through a veil of unexpected stylistic choices.
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