‘Caught by the Tides,’ Jia Zhangke’s Epic Cannes Competition Film, Set for U.S. Release
“Caught by the Tides,” the contemporary Chinese epic film directed by Jia Zhangke, has been acquired for U.S. release by Sidehow and Janus Films.
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The film appeared in main competition in Cannes in May and is an extended look at the romantic destiny of Jia’s perennial heroine, Qiaoqiao (Jia’s real world wife, Zhao Tao) over a period of 21 years. On another level, the film is an examination of a country going through profound transformation, mixing individual experiences and turbulent emotional and social changes.
It uses a mixture of old footage shot by Jia over the past century as well as some new. The main cast are Zhao Tao and Li Zhubin.
Variety’s reviewer Jessica Kiang, called the film: “an epic, lyrical drama that is both Chinese master Jia’s career-retrospective reinvention and a defining portrait of modern China.”
Sideshow and Janus Films will release the picture exclusively in U.S. theaters at an unspecified date “in the coming months.” “Jia Zhangke is one of the twenty-first century’s most important filmmakers and with ‘Caught by the Tides’ he delivers what will surely be considered one of his great films, that gives us the gift of watching Zhao Tao across over two decades culminating in one of the best scenes of their career together,” said the two companies in a statement.
The film is an X Stream Pictures, Momo Pictures, Huanxi Media Group Limited (Beijing) and Wishart Media (Quanzhou) production in association with mk2 Films, Ad Vitam and Bitters End. It was produced by Casper Liang Jiayan, Shozo Ichiyama and Zhang Dong.
At Cannes, Sideshow and Janus Films also acquired Payal Kapadia’s Grand Prix Winner “All We Imagine as Light,” Gints Zilbalodis’ Un Certain Regard title “Flow” which subsequently won four prizes at the Annecy Animation Festival including the Jury Prize and audience award, Alain Guiraudie’s Cannes Premiere entry “Misericordia” and Leos Carax’s “It’s Not Me.”
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