Subscribe: http://bit.ly/subscribetotheBFI. Jia Zhangke delivers another ambitious, astute and humane drama, spanning the early days of Chinese capitalism to a vision of 2025. The 59th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express® runs from Wednesday 7 October-Sunday 18 October 2015. The Festival will open with "Suffragette" (starring Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter and Meryl Streep), the first feature film to tell the story of the ordinary British women at the turn of the last century who risked everything in the fight for equality and the right to vote. Relive all of the best moments from the BFI London Film Festival 2015: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXvkgGofjDzgk6iI5YTc7AkfG7rAnh5Fk Watch more on the BFI Player: http://player.bfi.org.uk/ Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BFI Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BritishFilmInstitute Follow us on Google+: https://plus.google.com/+britishfilminstitute/ Jia Zhangke delivers a picture every bit as ambitious, astute and humane as his previous films, covering three time periods in the life of a group of friends who become family. We open on the eve of the new Millennium and Chinese capitalism is burgeoning. Tao must choose a suitor between flashy Zhang, with his fancy motor and stoic worker Liangzi. The film then jumps forward, catching up with the characters 15 and 25 years later. As always, Jia is perceptive and analytical about how societal and economic forces affect lives and values, but the film avoids any schematic contrivance. From its audacious opening dance sequence to The Pet Shop Boys’ Go West, to an imagined Australia in 2025 (the section marks Jia’s first foray into English language), Mountains May Depart presents a sympathetic portrait of its characters. This is humanist cinema with a powerful political core.