Last Train Home is a documentary that looks at the harrowing trek migrant workers in China (some 130 million of them) take each year to get back to their families in order to celebrate Chinese New Year together. The film follows one family over the course of three years and is an eye-opening portrait of a life most of us in North America would never be able to grasp. Yet the struggles they face both physically and emotionally is for our benefit as much as their own, as the products they manufacture (the clothes we wear and the toys our children play with) are what feeds China's economy. Director Lixin Fan showcases the dark and beautiful side of China in a mesmerizing fashion while not being afraid to play with the viewers' emotions as he shows the drama and struggles this family goes through each day.

CityNews.ca spoke with Fan, who was born and raised in China before moving to Montreal to further his film career, about the process of making Last Train Home and what he hopes the audience will get from it.

Why did you decide to document this topic?

I worked for CCTV [the state television broadcaster in China] and it was there that I had the chance to travel across the country very intensively. We were often sent to remote areas to cover news and I saw a lot of properties in rural China. I felt strongly about the difference between the rich and the poor...the countryside life and the urban life in a big metropolis like Beijing [or] Shanghai. The prosperity China has today is largely contributed by the migrant workers but unfortunately they are often denied social support or enough care that would enable them to have a better life. I figured I should make a film to address this issue and increase the awareness of the people that live in the city to appreciate more of what they have.

How did you find the Zhang family?

I travelled to the city of Guangzhou. It's a coastal city and a factory town so there's thousands and thousands of factories. I talked to many migrant workers who came from all parts of the country...remote villages. They don't like to talk to strangers because in the migrant world people's lives change very fast and to gain personal trust is different. I met the Zhangs and their story fit perfectly with what I wanted to address with this migration. I asked their permission to film and they hesitated so I went back a few weeks later and we talked a lot about our lives and opened up to each other and they agreed to take us with them to go back to their village to see their daughter.

The scenes in the train station seemed very difficult to film, can you talk about any challenges?

The train scene was a big logistic challenge to the filming. It was in 2008 and China got hit with the worst snow storm in fifty years and the railroad system in a large part of the country was paralyzed by the storm. When the railway broke down there was 600,000 migrant workers stuck in the station and we and the family happened to be in that crowd.

Did you ever lose each other in the crowd?

It's very difficult to keep track of the subject with so many people and cell phones don't work there. How we managed to keep our eye on them was we gave the father and mother a wireless microphone and a bunch of batteries. I'd tell them, 'If you don't see us around talk to the microphone and tell us where you are', and by doing that we were able to find each whenever we got lost. We spent three days in the crowd before we could hop on the train. It was a challenging experience.

How has the economy changed in China since filming?

When the financial crisis hit the world in 2008 it was looking pretty bad in China. I remember in October [of 2008] it was reported that 20 million workers lost their jobs. It's slowly picking up but I think the country now realizes it can't rely solely on export.

What do you hope the audience in North America gets out of the film?

I want them to take a second thought of the lifestyle their living. It might not be a lifestyle that is sustainable. I see it as a mutual addiction between China and India and the developed nations. We live here and consume and for countries like China, who have a huge population to be employed, they wanted to rely on the export industry to keep their economy growing. I hope my film can serve as a means of mutual communication so that we all realize there is a problem in this model that needs changing.

Last Train Home plays as part of the Doc Soup series at the Bloor Cinema on January 20 (6:30pm and 9:30pm screenings) before heading to the Sundance Film Festival in Salt Lake City, Utah. It returns to Toronto to kick off the Toronto Human Rights Watch International Film Festival on February 24. More info on the film can be found at eyesteelfilm.com/lasttrainhome.

brian.mckechnie@citynews.rogers.com

Top image: A scene at the train station from Last Train Home. Courtesy EyeSteelFilm.