Zhangke Jia, Poetic Prophet

In «Caught by the Tides» the director has reassembled remnants of his old films. The result is a fascinating work.

Zhangke Jia, Poetic Prophet

This was written for a brochure to accompany a retrospective held by Northwestern University’s Block Cinema in January 2008. — J.R. ZHANGKE JIA, POETIC PROPHET by Jonathan Rosenbaum What is it about Zhangke Jia that makes him the most exciting mainland Chinese filmmaker currently working? It might be oversimplifying matters to describe this writer-director, born in 1970, as a country boy. But the fact that he hails from the small town of Fenyang…