Lixin Fan's documentary Last Train Home opens the seventh annual Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival tonight at the Isabel Bader Theatre at 6:30 p.m. Last Train Home spans the course of three years and follows one family as they do the harrowing trek a majority of migrant workers in China take each year to get back to their families in order to celebrate Chinese New Year. The film is an eye-opening portrait of a life most of us in North America would never be able to grasp.

This year's festival runs until March 6 and features a total of ten feature and documentary films that "focus on survivors and activists from around the world who are fighting to restore freedom, justice and a sense of community in their home countries." Other titles playing include Anne Aghion’s My Neighbor, My Killer (2009), Sally Gutiérrez Dewar’s Tapologo (2008), Lisa F. Jackson’s The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo (2007), and Danis Tanovic's Triage (2009) starring Colin Farrell. All films screen at the TIFF Cinematheque's Jackman Hall theatre except for Last Train Home.

Tickets are $10.90 for adults and $6.45 for students and seniors. They can be purchased online at tiff.net/cinematheque, by phone at 416-968-FILM or toll-free 1-877-968-FILM. In person tickets can be purchased at the TIFFG Box Office (2 Carlton Street, West Mezzanine level) from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information and a complete schedule of films visit humanrightsfilmfestival.ca.

Related links:

Filmmaker Lixin Fan Talks About His Documentary 'Last Train Home'
BlogTO: The Human Rights Watch Film Festival

brian.mckechnie@citynews.rogers.com

Top image: A scene from Last Train Home. Courtesy EyeSteelFilm.