Last Train Home

(Canada, 2009, 87 mins, 35mm)

Wisconsin Premiere

director of photography: Lixin Fan
executive producer: Daniel Cross, Mila Aung-Thwin, Qi Zhao
camera operators: Shaoguang Sun, Lixin Fan
co-producer: Bob Moore
editor: Lixin Fan, Mary Stephens
production supervisor: Michael Mk Siu, Bob Moore
music: Olivier Alary
producer: Mila Aung-Thwin, Daniel Cross

Every Chinese New Year, the world’s largest annual human migration begins in cities throughout China. Millions of migrant workers cram onto outbound trains to visit their family for the holiday. For many, it will be the only time they see each other all year. Spread as far as the lens can see, this massive crush of humanity could go head to head with Sweetgrass for the biggest stampedes of this year’s festival. A superb observational documentary, Last Train Home focuses on a single family among the throngs. Mom and dad work their fingers to the bone in an urban factory, while their son, Yang, and teenage daughter, Qin, are raised by their grandmother in the tranquil Chinese countryside. But if the circumstances are extreme, the family dynamics are surprisingly recognizable: this snapshot of China’s shifting economic landscape doubles as a near-universal portrait of growing up. Resentful of her parents’ endless guilt trips about her grades, the rebellious Qin takes on a dead-end factory job of her own, upsetting the family’s already strained relationship. First-time director Lixin Fan (producer of Up the Yangtze, WFF08) spent three years following Qin and her family, and the intimacy between them is tangible. The documentary abounds in memorable images of cross-country train rides, but Fan is first and foremost a natural storyteller. This exemplary debut firmly establishes him as a filmmaker to watch. Winner, Best Feature-Length Documentary, 2009 Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival.

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