We begin today on the French Riviera. While there's been an absence of Chinese movies at the past two Cannes International Film Festivals, the 71st edition has once again welcomed Jia Zhangke. With his brand new work "Ash is purest white", the Chinese director and screenwriter is on his fifth quest for a Palme d'Or within a decade, which makes him the first of a kind in China.

On May 11th, Jia Zhangke owned the red carpet at the Croisette. Accompanied by actress Zhao Tao and actor Liao Fan, Jia showed the world his latest creation, "Ash is purest white". This is the only Chinese film in this year's main competition category. It's also one of the movies rated highest by the renowned Screen Daily magazine's international jury so far. The magazine says the film portrays seismic shifts in 21st-century Chinese society through the bittersweet ebb and flow of an epic love story. As Jia puts it.

JIA ZHANGKE CHINESE FILM DIRECTOR AND SCREENWRITER "New things have sprung up, while old things are destroyed. It's the same way in private lives and emotions. Society and individuals have all gone through a lot. That's why I shot this film."

Inspired by the enduring cooperation with his muse-like wife Zhao Tao, Jia Zhangke created the storyline of Qiao, which spans from 2001 to 2018. Jia also gave life to Bin, Qiao's boyfriend, to express his own feelings over the same period. The couple were bound together by life in the mob and separated by prison life. After everything between them has been burned into ashes, only love and morality remains pure. That's how Jia Zhangke puts his signature on people's changing relations, which is echoed by the film's Chinese title, Jiang Hu Er Nyu.

JIA ZHANGKE CHINESE FILM DIRECTOR AND SCREENWRITER "Everyone of us speaks with our own characteristics, in our own rhythm, and even in our own dialects. I think this personal accent is the most important, because it represents each filmmaker's way of telling a story and shooting a scene."

Jia's personal accent has brought him international fame and recognition. Since 2008, not a single movie he's taken to Cannes has ever missed the official selection. And in 2015, he was awarded the Carrosse d'Or, a prestigious prize from the French Film Directors' Guild. This puts him in same ranks as Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese. Meanwhile, Jia Zhangke has also become an inspiration for younger generation of filmmakers, from both the east and the west. But Jia says he hates to separate the world into those blocs. To him, every filmmaker should have equal opportunities to contribute to the diversity of the movie world.

JIA ZHANGKE CHINESE FILM DIRECTOR AND SCREENWRITER "My sources of inspiration come from Chinese movies, French movies, Italian movies, Russian movies and so on. I benefited a lot from this diversity. So in the universe of films, I seldom refer to the east and the west. Film is what it is."