Director Jia Zhangke’s debut feature has been compared to Bresson’s Mouchette both for its unadorned realism and its transcendent humanism. Filmed on a small budget with a nonprofessional cast, Xiao Wu follows its eponymous protagonist, a small-time pickpocket, through the days and nights of his amiable but aimless existence. Increasing difficulties accrue (family and friendship troubles, mixed romantic signals from the ostess at the local karaoke bar, a crackdown by the local police) until, at his most vulnerable, Xiao Wu lets loose with sng in the local bath house. This unglamorized view of small-town China won top prize at the Pusan, Korea Film Festival; the Dragons and Tigers Award for Young Cinema at the Vancouver International Film Festival; and has been shown at the Rotterdam Film Festival and in Lincoln Center and MoMA’s New Directors’ program.