One Child Nation

Grand Prize winner at Sundance 2019, this documentary is about the one child policy in Communist China from the 80s to the 2000s in response to a booming population.  The filmmaker Nanfu Wang does an admirable job of getting Chinese people involved in the one child policy, from enforcers to those affected to show what it was really about:  Not just voluntary birth control, but forced sterilization, inducing birth, abortions, infanticide and forced adoptions.

A highlight is showing a girl whose sister was forcibly taken and adopted out to an American family.  Through DNA they find out about each other but that is as far as it goes.  The Chinese girl muses "she probably has milk and bread for breakfast every morning".

A strong subject, but seemed a little choppy.

* * * * of 5


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