Canadian-made documentary on the world’s largest human migration, the annual trek of 130 million migrant workers from their urban sweatshops to their rural roots, for the Chinese New Year. An uncommonly well-crafted documentary, more attentive than most to basic cinematic concerns such as composition and rhythm, but still heavily reliant on interview soliloquies and stilted informational dialogue. It focusses on one fractured family<\!s><\#209> a microscopic view of the burgeoning Chinese economy<\!s><\#209> and it captures one big domestic blowup (mom and dad versus teenage daughter) of the kind that documentarists live for. One hopes the family members were well compensated for their participation. Directed by Lixin Fan. (2010) — Duncan Shepherd
This movie is not currently in theaters.