One Child Nation

One Child Nation is a powerful 2019 documentary that uncovers a part of China's history previously unexplored on film – the social implications and lasting impact of the 'One Child policy' which was enacted in 1979 and lasted till 2015.

The film features a remarkable partnership between Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang, both women being products of the One Child policy themselves. Nanfu Wang, not only co-directs but also stars as the protagonist of this personal exploration. She returns to her native rural village in China, seeking to expose the harrowing effects of this imposed policy and to uncover individual narratives linked to her own trajectory of life.

The film starts with a surprisingly intimate revelation – Nanfu Wang’s recent motherhood and the birth of her son. This new chapter of her life spurred her need to connect the dots to her own origins, forming the starting point of the narrative. Employing heavy personal elements, it includes interviews with her own mother, brother, and extended relatives, slowly navigating the complexities of the policy and its unique stories.

The film journeys through Wang's hometown and its fascinating residents, opening up a Pandora's box of stories that range from heartbreaking traumas to surprising resilience. Family roles are explored in this narrative with her brother, Zaodi Wang, and uncle, Zhimei Wang, providing insights into the struggles and moral dilemmas faced by families grappling under the heavy toll of the policy.

One Child Nation, along with portraying the human struggle, also delves deep into the stark political milieu surrounding the One Child policy. The film starkly captures the policy's ruthless effectiveness through interviews with local birth-control officials, clinic doctors, and artists who seek visual portrayals of the policy’s cruel side.

A series of interviews lift the veil from the devastating layers of the policy such as forced abortions, sterilizations, and a thriving market for adopted children. The film showcases the intense propaganda that was prevalent – from operas and dances to songs and comical sketches, generating a sense of compliance and acceptance within the citizens.

Throughout the film, the gory reality of the policy comes starkly alive in vivid images: full-term aborted fetuses, propaganda murals, and the haunting memories of families separated by adoption. The human stories weaved through these narratives make a major impact, bringing out the bare truth that surfaced in silent cries behind closed Chinese doors for 36 years.

While the directors do not shy away from the grit and grime of the policy, they also highlight China's apparent achievement in controlling the overpopulation crisis. Wang connects to her roots, bringing out the individual faces obscured in the collective narrative. All these interviews converge into a strikingly poignant narrative, destabilizing the broader backdrop of the policy through the power of personal stories.

The directors of the film - Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang, tightly weave this study of memory, history, and trauma using the tools of exceptional cinematography, intimate storytelling, and admirable courage. The poignant visual style coupled with the personal narrative lends a heartrending perspective to the film, never straying from its exploration of truth.

One Child Nation is a repeat confrontation between personal and collective history. It is not just a documentary on a political policy, but an examination of family, identity, and the grave consequences of blind nationalism. The film poses hard questions, the answers to which are unique to each individual's experience of the One Child policy.

Ultimately, One Child Nation is a painful illustration of history and its inescapable shadows, lingering on long after the policy has ceased to exist. It serves as a thought-provoking piece that tests the boundary between obedience and resistance, weaving a narrative from personal musings to national reckoning, and ultimately, to global consciousness. It is a film that seeks to process the trauma of an entire nation, vibrating with the pulse of shared human experience and the resilience it embodies.

Indeed, One Child Nation is a hauntingly impactful film and a crucial piece of filmmaking that provides a deeply unsettling look at a chapter of history that continues to echo poignantly in the lives it affected, and in the generations to come. Through its examination of one of the most drastic social experiments in human history, it offers us a compelling window into the past and a firm, hopeful grasp towards the future.