synopsis

Every spring, China’s cities are plunged into chaos as 130 million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the New Year’s holiday. This mass exodus is the world’s largest human migration—an epic spectacle that reveals a country tragically caught between its rural past and industrial future. Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Lixin Fan travels with one couple who have embarked on this annual trek for almost two decades. Emotionally engaging and starkly beautiful, LAST TRAIN HOME’s intimate observation of one fractured family sheds light on the human cost of China’s ascendance as an economic superpower.