Swimming Out Until The Sea Turns Blue (Yi zhi you dao hai shui bian lan)

A documentary by Jia Zhangke. In Mandarin, with English subtitles. Streaming at VIFF Connect from Friday (December 18) to January 14.

Chinese master Jia Zhangke’s first documentary in over a decade—after a run of ambitious narrative features like A Touch Of Sin, Mountains May Depart, and Ash Is Purest White—uses a literary festival in the filmmaker’s home province of Shanxi to explore the last few decades of Chinese history from the perspective of three writers from different generations: Jia Pingwa, and Yu Hua and Liang Hong.

Mostly, they’re happy with the way things have improved for the Chinese people (and for themselves) since the chaos of the Cultural Revolution and the gradual abandonment of ritualistic patriotism as the nation became more focused on economic victories.

Director Jia restrains himself from any overt commentary, which is surprising given the level of allegorical engagement in his recent features. Even his 2008 quasi-documentary 24 City offers artful contrast to its “real” content through fictional inserts.

Maybe he’s mellowing with age, or maybe he’s just content to let these particular subjects tell their own stories as they see fit. Either way, they’re stories worth hearing.