MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART

In late 90s China, young Tao from Fengyang must make a choice. Two men she has known since childhood now seek her hand in marriage. One owns a service station, ensuring a decent living, and the other is a coal miner. Reason trumps matters of the heart, and Tao gives birth to a son she names Dollar.

In the China of today we reconnect with this Number One Son, who has been raised in affluence and comfort to the point of becoming a spoiled brat, to the great consternation of his mother. When we see him again in the Australia of 2025, where he now pursues his studies, his venerable Chinese heritage has almost wholly evaporated. Presented in official competition at the most recent edition of the Cannes Film Festival, Mountains May Depart sees Jia Zhang ke (A Touch of Sin) further honing his lucid and moving appraisal of the profound mutations roiling his country and the true threats of loss of cultural identity it faces. Illustrating each sequence with exceptionally inspired directorial choices imbued with rare fluidity and relevance, he succeeds, against all odds, in casting Go West by the Pet Shop Boys as a hymn to freedom and joy as astonishingly beautiful as it is moving.