From 1994 to 2009, the construction of the Three Gorges Dam in China led to the forced relocation of more than a million people living along the Yangtze River. Everyone living below the critical threshold of 135 meters above the waterline has to go. But farmer and orange picker Bing’ai is refusing to move. She simply wants to stay living on her own land, growing her own vegetables. Why would she want to start again somewhere else?
Director Yan Feng follows Bing’ai and her family for ten years as they battle it out with unyielding civil servants and bureaucratic officials. In vibrant scenes, the film captures everything from heated gatherings on the village square to daily work in the fields—all set against a backdrop of imposing mountains.
As the struggle against the forced relocations goes on, it brings Bing’ai and her husband closer together. In conversations with the filmmaker, the ever-resolute farmer is surprisingly candid about the deprivations of her past, her married life and her dreams for the future.
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