In ‘Caught by the Tides,’ Jia Zhang-ke Looks Back to Look Forward

The Chinese auteur Jia Zhang-ke has had 10 films play in the main slate at the New York Film Festival over the years, but hasn’t actually attended the fest since 2018, when his drama Ash Is the Purest White was screened there. This year, Jia finally returned with his latest, Caught by the Tides—and opened his speech at the festival’s prestigious Amos Vogel Lecture with something of a joke.

“Friends actually asked me, ‘What happened in the past six years? What’s the biggest change…