"Still Life - Sanxia Haoren" by Jia Zhangke

I just went to the cinema this evening to see "Still Life - Sanxia Haoren" by Jia Zhangke.

I don't know whether I should like this film or not. It's more a film to make you think rather to enjoy...Actually this film made me kind of sad...

The film is about the life of simple people affected by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam at the Yangtze River portrayed on the fate of two couples finding and parting each other. The people itself don't talk much. Jia Zhangke let's the scenery of the demolition of Fengjie and the amazing sound picture talk for itself...The Rhythm of the men turning down the buildings with simple hammers and the sound from the boats on the river give the movie a special sound...

The film shows people in transition, on the move, stuck between traditional and modern life, and it shows also what kind of project the Three Gorges Dam is - it does not help the people living there - it actually caused a people's migration - driving away the people from their homes...
The project is nothing more but a prestige project, a realization of Mao's dream...

For me the film was a must see - though I only heard about it by chance - because I wrote a seminar thesis about the project from the planning and environmental perspective several years ago. From the common sense this project does not make any sense. It will be affected sooner or later by the same problems like the damn at the Huang He and the Assuan dam at the Nil due to the high load of soil and gravel and will also affect the delta...making it shrink on the long term...