This film is part of Rentals
Mountains May Depart
Jia Zhangke delivers another ambitious, astute and humane drama, spanning the early days of Chinese capitalism to a vision of 2025.
Drama 2015 126 mins
Director: Jia Zhangke
Overview
Jia Zhangke delivers a picture every bit as ambitious, astute and humane as his previous films, covering three time periods in the life of a group of friends who become family. We open on the eve of the new Millennium and Chinese capitalism is burgeoning. Tao must choose a suitor between flashy Zhang, with his fancy motor and stoic worker Liangzi. The film then jumps forward, catching up with the characters 15 and 25 years later.
As always, Jia is perceptive and analytical about how societal and economic forces affect lives and values, but the film avoids any schematic contrivance. From its audacious opening dance sequence to The Pet Shop Boys’ Go West, to an imagined Australia in 2025 (the section marks Jia’s first foray into English language), Mountains May Depart presents a sympathetic portrait of its characters. This is humanist cinema with a powerful political core.
infrequent strong language, moderate violenceRelated
Drama
Monsters and Men
Drama 2018 96 mins Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green
Unravelling the aftermath of a police killing of a black man - and how it affects the lives of three separate individuals. With John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman).
Outcasts
Drama 2008 25 mins Director: Ian Clark
A girl in love, a pop star in peril and a gang on the run - watch it play out!
Walter
Drama 1982 73 mins Director: Stephen Frears
Ian McKellen stars in Stephen Frears' TV play as Walter, a man with learning difficulties who's put in an institution after the death of his mother.
Walter and June
Drama 1983 65 mins Director: Stephen Frears
Ian McKellen and Stephen Frears reunite for Walter and June, the sequel to their earlier TV play Walter. The titular character (McKellen) meets a young mother (Sarah Miles) who is suicidally depressed; the two begin to support one another to cope with life in a closed institution.
Footsteps
Drama 1974 33 mins Director: Alan Parker
Mollie has been left with highly sensitive hearing after an attack. In her boarding house room she "witnesses" a murder by hearing strange footsteps.
Pili
Drama 2018 81 mins Director: Leanne Welham
An HIV+ mother has a chance to turn her life around when she's offered a market stall, in Leanne Welham's extraordinary drama.
Festival Favourites
Another Year
Drama 2010 124 mins Director: Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh's drama about contented couple (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen) who play host to various friends, each struggling to find happiness.
Winter Sleep
Drama 2014 197 mins Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Modern master filmmaker Nuri Bilge Celyan’s Palme d’Or winner: an extraordinary, epic drama.
Hockney
Documentary 2014 108 mins Director: Randall Wright
A portrait of the beloved British artist, drawing on his own home-movie footage and with revealing contributions from his friends and colleagues.
Blue is the Warmest Colour
Romance 2013 180 mins Director: Abdel Kechiche
The epic, passionate and strikingly naturalistic Palme d'Or-winning romance.
Beyond the Hills
Drama 2012 152 mins Director: Cristian Mungiu
Cristian Mungiu's scarily plausible drama about a nun's friend suffering for her love in a nunnery; obsession and superstition wreak havoc.
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Drama 2012 93 mins Director: Benh Zeitlin
Set in a Deep South delta, Zeitlin’s feature debut takes a child’s eye view of poverty, adult apathy and ecological crisis. Hallucinatory fare
Featuring Zhao Tao
A Touch of Sin
Drama 2013 125 mins Director: Jia Zhangke
Jia Zhangke’s state-of-the-nation report on contemporary China is comprised of four stories about shocking acts of violence.
Directed by Jia Zhangke
A Touch of Sin
Drama 2013 125 mins Director: Jia Zhangke
Jia Zhangke’s state-of-the-nation report on contemporary China is comprised of four stories about shocking acts of violence.
New
Monsters and Men
Drama 2018 96 mins Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green
Unravelling the aftermath of a police killing of a black man - and how it affects the lives of three separate individuals. With John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman).
Outcasts
Drama 2008 25 mins Director: Ian Clark
A girl in love, a pop star in peril and a gang on the run - watch it play out!
Walter
Drama 1982 73 mins Director: Stephen Frears
Ian McKellen stars in Stephen Frears' TV play as Walter, a man with learning difficulties who's put in an institution after the death of his mother.
Polio
Documentary 1958 13 mins Director: Rollo Gamble
Daniel Farson meets people affected by polio in a series of studio interviews and a filmed report with a man paralysed after contracting the disease.
Behindert
Documentary 1974 98 mins Director: Stephen Dwoskin
The account of a close, personal relationship as experienced by a disabled man.
No Future
Documentary 1958 13 mins Director: Rollo Gamble
Despite the bleak title, there is some hope in this film about disabled schoolchildren.