Youth (Homecoming) (LUXFILMFEST)

Wang Bing, 152 min, 2024 - Frankreich, Luxemburg, Niederlande
As New Year's break is coming, Zhili's textile workshops are almost deserted. The few remaining employees are desperate to be paid for their trip home. From the banks of the Yangtze River to the mountains of Yunnan, everyone will be celebrating the festivities in their hometown, and performing the rituals of prosperity among their families. For Shi Wei, it’s also the opportunity to get married, as it is for Fang Lingping. Her husband, a former IT specialist, will have to follow her in Zhili after the ceremony. Learning is hard, but does not hinder the advent of a new generation of workers.
In the final chapter of his Youth trilogy, Wang Bing continues his unique work of documenting the daily lives of young people working in Chinese textile factories, whose time is literally sucked away by the workload, and whose incomes are so meager that the horizon is terribly crowded. An essential film on the throes of capitalism...