When the Bough Breaks

On wasteland in the outskirts of Beijing lives a family that migrated from the countryside to the city in search of a better life. Their slum dwelling, surrounded by mountains of rubbish, contains a single desk. It symbolizes the choice that the family has to make, because only one of them can get a full education. The two daughters in the family are determined to have their brother Gang take advantage of this opportunity, while the fate of their eldest sister, who left school to work and disappeared into prostitution, hangs over them like a shadow. Filmmaker Dan Ji first met the family in 2004 when she made a documentary about the Chinese education system. Five years later, she returned to find family roles reversed. While the father gets drunk and the mother appears detached, the daughters discuss school fees and universities like adults. Gang sits by silently. The extended scenes, switching between intimate close-ups and neutral distance, emphasize the family’s constrained situation in a society in which they have been made almost invisible. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)