Director: Lixie Fan
Country: Canada/China
Year: 2016
Over the last half-century, China has ascended to the position of economic royalty on the world stage. The country now has over 260 million migrant workers. Each spring, over 130 million people return home to their villages for the New Year’s holiday, the largest human migration in the world. Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Lixin Fan follows one couple who has trekked this journey for two decades, leaving behind their two infant children—now teens—for brutal factory jobs. This emotionally taut and starkly beautiful film shows the human cost of a country’s economic power.