FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Jia Zhangke - Pickpocket (engl. subt.) 

One of the things I did on my holiday in Beijing was to get an overview of all the FILM coming out of China. I cycled to the hutongs, where the Academy of Drama is located. Nearby is a DVD shop run by students. Hidden behind a curtain, the impressive collection awaits the geek. A young man with thick Nouvelle Vague glasses gave me the DVDs of Zhiangke, the greatest Chinese director here & now (according to the geek). Wonderful! First I tried Pickpocket, alluding to the French model. it tells the story of a Chinese pickpocket, somewhere in the province. As he goes about his shabby business, he notices that the world has moved on. His best friend, now a capitalist entrepreneur, is getting married - but has not even invited him. He falls in love with a karaoke bar girl and eventually falls victim to a humiliating police raid.... Student Geek had previously given me plenty of information about Zhiangke. A filmmaker working with 16mm and amateur actors, he tackles themes that are unwanted in modern China: the human sacrifices demanded by the transition from controlled communism to unleashed capitalism. Pickpocket is a deeply sad story full of compassion. When the pickpocket is taken away in front of passers-by, we understand why China's new generation is at Zhiangke's feet: This is a great, a moving moment of modern cinema! Above all, we understand what it must be like to live in modern China. Not that Zhiangke longs for party leader Mao - but he doesn't like the emerging China any better. A nation caught between two sterilities.