Immigrant Life in Spain: On the evening of September 26, the 63rd San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain concluded, with the film Mountains May Depart, directed by Jia Zhangke, winning the Audience Award. The film had previously been selected for the Cannes Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada, the Vladivostok International Film Festival in Russia, and the New York Film Festival. The mature performance of post-90s rising star Dong Zijian in Mountains May Depart has also received significant acclaim.
Mountains May Depart was written and directed by Jia Zhangke and is a painstaking big-screen work that took ten years to prepare. Post-90s rising star Dong Zijian was chosen by director Jia Zhangke to play the son of Zhao Tao's character, who grew up in Australia, and to engage in an age-gap romance with Sylvia Chang. The role demanded a great deal from Dong Zijian in terms of acting skills and psychological resilience. Furthermore, Dong Zijian had to perform entirely in English without a single line of Chinese, which posed a challenge to his English proficiency. Despite the immense pressure, during the filming of Mountains May Depart, Dong Zijian not only quickly familiarized himself with the English dialogue performance style but was also able to present the character precisely, delivering an exceptionally mature performance. In this regard, director Jia Zhangke praised him: "It is rare for a young idol to be able to act, yet Dong possesses both qualities. He is very free and comfortable in front of the camera, with no sense of restraint, and this kind of relaxed, free-state performance and re-creation is exactly what an actor needs most."
