Jia Zhang-ke, a leading figure of what is known as the Sixth Generation of filmmakers in the People’s Republic of China, is considered by many to be the most successful storyteller of change and discontent in contemporary China. Bearing witness to the country’s often vicious shift from state-controlled communism to capitalism (and its inevitable rip-offs), his films offer what Jia himself calls a “Chinese reality without distortion.” In The Front Room, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis screens Jia’s celebrated story of wandering youths at Beijing’s World Park in The World (2005, China).