Plastic China

Yi Jie’s uneducated parents left the area where they grew up, looking for work. They now sort and recycle plastic waste from Europe, the United States and other parts of Asia. The family literally lives among mountains of plastic and the disgusting stench from incinerators. Nevertheless, the children always manage to find hidden treasures: a bag of balloons, or some nice magazines to cut pictures out of that they use to make stories. This gives them a glimpse of a different, much richer life – one full of opportunities they will never have. Yi Lie can’t even go to school – according to her father, it’s because he can’t afford it, but his boss says it’s because he drinks his salary away. It seems like a hopeless situation. The boss and his family do dream of a better future. When they take Yi Jie and her father to a flashy car show, the two of them just stand there, completely lost, in a world they will never belong to. This poignant film, in which the camera stays very close to the protagonists, needs no explanations: the images tell a universal story of social inequality.