‘Youth: Homecoming’ Review: Director Wang Bing Shines A Light On Workers Whose Lives Nobody Would Want — Venice Film Festival
deadline.comFiercely independent Chinese filmmaker Wang Bing spent five years filming young workers in Zhili, an industrial region near Shanghai where around 18,000 garment workshops churn out cheap clothes for the domestic market.
The workshops run on cheap labor from the provinces; around 200,000 make the long trek from their home villages for six-month periods, living in the workshop dormitories and working 15-hour days.
They are only paid at the end of each six-month bout and have no idea how much they will get; the wages are calculated on piece-work rates so depend on how many units they turn out of their sewing machines, but also on sales, cash flow and their bosses’ whims.
Often enough, it seems, they get next to nothing. Director Wang followed a small group of workers, widening his scope to include friends and siblings who joined them in Zhili over the years, filming them at work and in the few hours they have between shifts.
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