Northwest Film Forum

After vast coal deposits were found in Ordos, China, the region went from being one of the country’s poorest areas to one of the wealthiest. The Chinese government used the money to build a new metropolis, but with no one to populate Ordos City, it soon became known as China’s largest ghost town. To remedy this, the government is relocating thousands of farmers from rural Ordos to the empty city.

 

Co-directors Song Ting and Adam James Smith spent over a year in Ordos documenting the relocation of one family, and a government official responsible for their “reeducation” in the ways of the urban consumer. Chinese producer Song and English filmmaker Smith’s first feature length documentary, provides a fascinating and troubling picture of what is becoming a mass relocation project in China. It is estimated that the government plans to relocate 250 million farmers to urban areas over the next 20 years.