The film begins in the days leading up to New Year in the Chinese city of Zhili, one of the country’s major textile production centers, nearly deserted during the holiday season. Only small groups of workers remain on duty, eager both to return home and to take a break from the relentless work pace imposed on them. With the year’s end comes the time for family rituals of gratitude and prosperity. The viewer witnesses a disheartening vision of a labor system in which the employee is reduced to a number, an extra, a mere body. Award-winning director Wang Bing depicts the bitter everyday realities of young Chinese workers in his Youth trilogy. The documentary Homecoming closes the series.

SCREENING
March 22, 8 p.m.