Wang Bing's "Youth (Return to the Country)", a hotbed of pitfalls

With Back to the Country , the final installment of the Youth trilogy, Wang Bing's monumental documentary project comes to a close. Cut from 2,600 hours of rushes and five years of filming, from 2014 to 2019, it took us around ten hours in total, night and day, with the textile workers of Zhili, 150 kilometers from Shanghai. Spring , with its adolescent flirtations and rowdiness, is far behind. The Torments of a Workforce Crushed by Exploitation marked the beginning of winter. After the confinement of the first two chapters, in the shadow of the blind alleys of the proletarian city, the film suddenly offers a breath of fresh air. For the young workers from the remote countryside of the center and southwest of the country, it is time to return home to celebrate the Chinese New Year with their families. Boys and girls board trains