Jia Zhangke’s new film included in 2018 Cannes lineup

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The lineup for the 71st Cannes Film Festival was announced on Thursday, with Chinese director Jia Zhangke’s new film “Ash Is Purest White” included in the competition. It is Jia’s fifth movie that has made into the runup to the awards at the French film event.

According to the director, the movie is “a story of violent love within a time frame spanning from 2001 to 2017.” Liao Fan, winner of the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival, takes the leading part of a taxi driver, while Zhao Tao, also starring in Jia’s “Mountains May Depart,” plays the role of a model, the heroine of the film.

A poster for "Ash Is Purest White". /Handout photo

It took Jia four months to shoot the film, and the crew traveled across Shanxi, Hubei and Xinjiang in China to find the views. It is also named by French magazine “Cahiers du Cinéma” as one of the most anticipated movies. It is also the only Chinese movie to enter the competition at this year’s event.

Jia Zhangke is a representative of China’s sixth-generation directors, who have grown up in the era of China’s implementation of reform and opening-up policies, and are more open to the influences of foreign film theories. Many of them focus more on the “grassroots class” compared to their predecessors.

Another Chinese film “Long Day’s Journey into Night,” directed by Bi Gan, has entered the lineup for “Un Certain Regard”.

A poster for "Long Day’s Journey into Night." /Handout photo‍

Bi Gan, a member of the so-called post-80s generation, is one of the country’s new talents in the film industry. He has never entered the three major film festivals in Europe before, but his first film, “Kaili Blues” grabbed the award for new director at the 68th Locarno International Film Festival as well as the 52nd Golden Horse Film Festival.

Four Asian films are in the running. Aside from the Chinese movie, a Japanese production “Shoplifters” by Hirokazu Kore-eda and “Burning” by South Korean director Lee Chang-dong were also among the competitors.

A poster for "Shoplifters." /Handout photo

Other runners for the top award in the French town include Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s new film “Three Faces,” “Leto” by Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov and US director Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman.”

Three female directors made it into the selection, including Lebanon’s Nadine Labaki for “Capernaum,” France’s Eva Husson for “Girls of the Sun” and Italian Alice Rohrwacher with “Lazzaro Felice”.

This year’s Cannes Film Festival has made some changes, including banning selfies on the red carpet. Also banned are Netflix’s films from competition for its refusal to release them in cinemas. The streaming platform announced on Wednesday that it was pulling out of the festival.

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