Last Train Home

Australasian Premiere

Within China, workers migrate to the cities in order to earn money to support their family back home. But at what cost?

At New Year, migrant workers fight to board trains for their annual pilgrimage to spend a few days reunited with their family at home. However for many of these workers, the holiday reality is heartache as the months spent apart cause estrangement and misunderstandings.

In a sophisticated debut, director Fan captures two years in the life of the Zhangs. Sixteen years ago, they left their young children in order to find work in the city and make a better life for
their children. Ironically, their hopes for the future are undone by their very absence. Their eldest child, Qin is a rebellious and resentful adolescent crippled by the abandonment. She drops out of school to become a migrant worker herself, breaking her parents’ hearts. Fan follows the parents as they attempt to
change their daughter’s course and repair their ruptured family. Intimate and candid, the film paints a human portrait of the dramatic changes sweeping China.

The Zhangs facing the difficult choices of a society caught between old ways and new realities. Can they get ahead yet
undo some of the damage done to their family?