It’s 2002, and the small Chinese port town of Fengjie is about to be demolished and completely submerged for the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. In the months leading up to their move, local residents clash with the “relocation committee”.

Bing’ai is a farmer in China, and she’s refusing to move for the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. While her years-long battle continues, the viewer gets a unique glimpse into her life around the turn of the millennium.

A poignant story of petitioners in Beijing: Chinese citizens who feel they have been wronged by local authorities and seek justice in the capital. They are driven by the desire for redress, but just how far should they go to get it?

Keeping the family together is the toughest job of all for the workers of the factories of a changing China, who only see their children on New Year. While the parents long for their village, the children dream of the city.

In 2008, the Chinese province of Sichuan was struck by a devastating earthquake. A couple who lost their only child in the disaster turns to IVF, hoping a new pregnancy will again give meaning to their life.

Lao Liu, Lao Cao and a dozen others—the film portrays a group of retired men in their 70s and 80s. Gathering every afternoon in their Beijing neighborhood, they lament and laugh about old age and dying.

Behind Beijing’s South Railway Station lies “Petition Village.” Many inhabitants of this shantytown have for years been seeking reparation from the government. Their struggle for justice is a daily fight against the indifference of the Chinese state.

A harrowing portrait of a Chinese farmer’s family that tries to live with HIV—a result of the trade in blood in the 1990s. While his wife suffers from AIDS and two of his children are seropositive, Shengyi Ma desperately tries to make ends meet.

Wheat Harvest depicts a complex picture of Hongmiao, a sex worker in Beijing. During the wheat harvest, she visits her village home and aids her family. The mundaneness and rawness of her life are inseparable.

An observant portrait of a Chinese migrant family living on the margins of society and struggling to build a chance for a better future out of an existence without prospects. Even if it’s just for one of them.