In 1979, China imposed the nationwide "one-child policy" in order to curb population growth and boost economic development. The strictly enforced measure prevented an estimated 400 million births and led to a surge of state-mandated abortions and sterilizations, abandoned children and feticides. After the birth of her first child in the US, filmmaker Nanfu Wang (Hooligan Sparrow) is compelled to examine her own family's conflicted past under the ban. Along with co-director Jialing Zhang, she travels back to China, juxtaposing the government's sanitization of the large-scale social experiment and the surprising reflections of those tasked with its enforcement. Through raw vérité, interviews and emotional confessions comes a searing portrait of a human rights tragedy. Winner of Sundance's US Grand Jury Prize, this fearless exposé unmasks the wrenching psychic and tangible costs millions of families continue to pay. Myrocia Watamaniuk
Content notice: Film contains some graphic imagery.
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