Youth (Homecoming)
May's Top 30 Films
•
2h 31m
Directed by Wang Bing • Documentary • 2024 • 160 minutes
Shi Wei, a young migrant garment worker, flops back onto a pile of soft fabric bundles on his workshop’s floor, cellphone in hand. “Shit, I’m exhausted,” he says to the boss who’s trying to get him to sew more clothing before the Lunar New Year break. “I’m beat, I tell you.”
Work in the garment factories of Zhili, where some 300,000 migrants from rural China sew clothing, is winding down for the season. Finally, the incessant hum of sewing machines fades away. Now it’s time for the workers to try and convince their managers to pay them so they can return home for New Year celebrations.
YOUTH (Homecoming) is the final installment in Wang Bing’s ambitious trilogy on the young workers of Zhili, shot over five years. But in contrast to the previous films, here Wang focuses more closely on a handful of characters. We follow them on their journeys back to their families, riding packed trains and negotiating perilous mountain roads. Back home, the factories of Zhili seem far away, as Shi Wei and another young worker, Fang Lingping, celebrate weddings.
After the holidays end, the newlyweds and other workers head back to Zhili. YOUTH is a fitting end to the series — a quieter and more intimate film, and a powerful record of the unseen young labor force that drives garment production at a steep personal cost.
Up Next in May's Top 30 Films
-
The Bohemian
Directed by Petr Václav • Drama • With Vojtech Dyk, Elena Radonicich • 2024 • 142 minutes
In 18th century Italy, aspiring opera composer Josef Mysliveček dreams of becoming a musician. His ambitions lead him to embark on a journey, exploring the world of opera to fulfill his destiny. Against all...
-
Tehran Blues
Directed by Javier Tolentino • Documentary • 2020 • 80 minutes
The city’s musicians and poets take us on a musical tour of Iran’s capital in a charming film about a music culture rarely heard of in the West.
Erfan is a poet and musician, and he lives with his parents and their lively parrot. Fr...
-
The Crime is Mine (François Ozon, w/ ...
Directed by François Ozon • Drama • With Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Rebecca Marder, Isabelle Huppert • 2023 • 102 minutes
Paris in the 1930s. Struggling actress Madeleine and her best friend Pauline, an unemployed lawyer, live in debt in a cramped flat. Opportunity knocks after a lascivious theatrical...
