Jia Zhangke's search for truth in movies

Jury member director Jia Zhangke waves as he arrives at the Grand Hyatt Cannes Hotel Martinez on the eve of the opening of the 67th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes May 13, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

Director stresses indie spirit

A win for sin?

Jia's films appear to be largely regional, but their themes are universal.

"The subjects of all my films are people and their everyday hardships: the problems they are facing, how they grow up, their relationship to the society and how they are influenced by it. For instance, 'A Touch of Sin' shows how human beings must constantly face violence, which happens not just in China, but also elsewhere," said Jia.

Despite being hailed as one of the most talented directors in the world, Jia said he wouldn't care too much about that and instead prefer to concentrate on his work at hand.

More than pursuing a devoted audience or recognition, Jia said he sees his films as a means to search for the truth.

"I only search for the truth, and the truth for me is aesthetics. My effort is to present the natural state of people and the environment," he said.

Jia has a lot of admirers in Brazil such as Salles and Frodon.

To produce the documentary, both Salles and Frodon spent months with the director at the end of 2013 in Jia's hometown Fenyang and Beijing as well as other parts of China.

The Brazilian director filmed Jia at his production company Xstream Pictures and on the set of some of his films, such as "Platform" (2000), "The World" (2004) and "A Touch of Sin" (2013).

Salles and Frodon also recorded dozens of hours of interviews with the filmmaker for the book, which also includes essays by Frodon on Jia's work and on Chinese cinema, among others.