Pickpocket

Back in Fenyang, Xiao Wu slouches idly around in his slightly oversized suit, picking the pockets of his fellow residents. The loudspeakers refer to him as a pariah under the new penal code, while Xiaoyong, his former sidekick and friend, has managed to turn his life around by reinventing himself as an illegal seller of cigarettes, to become a "respectable" citizen. Just after graduating from the Beijing Film Academy, Jia Zhang-Ke shot his first film in 1997 without official authorisation, on a shoestring budget, using amateur actors on real sets and in grainy 16 mm. From the beginning, the filmmaker employed a documentary-style working method based on an open, improvisational approach. Using a hand-held camera, he "captures the atmosphere of the moment" in a small district town in northern China – a response to the official, static cinema of the state studios. Playing Xiao Wu, a pickpocket ill-suited to the new reality of his country, Wang Hongwei reveals the new face of an ordinary, disoriented youth. From the outset, Jia Zhang-Ke has imposed a new, neo-realistic voice on Chinese cinema.
Emmanuel Chicon

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Yulu, 2011
I Wish I Knew, 2010
Stories on Human Rights, 2008
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24 City, 2008
Our Ten Years, 2007
Useless, 2007
Still Life, 2006
Dong, 2006
The World, 2004
Unknown Pleasures, 2002
The Condition of Dogs, 2001
In Public, 2001
Platform, 2000
Pickpocket, 1997
Du Du, 1996
Xiao Shan going Home, 1995