From 1979 to 2015, China’s one-child policy employed state propaganda and severe methods to control population growth. After the birth of her first child, filmmaker Nanfu Wang examines the staggering effects of this institution through the prism of her own family and the village where she was raised. Under the relentless pressure of the policy, neighbors committed unspeakable acts against one another, including forced sterilization, late-term abortion, and child kidnapping. To understand, Wang boldly interviews members of her family and community. Their testimonies portray anguish and violence in intense detail. One Child Nation also expands beyond Wang’s childhood village to examine the effects of the policy worldwide and how it still resonates today. Those who offer accounts range from a Chinese artist who paints portraits of unborn babies, haunted after finding a fetus discarded in a landfill, to a couple in the United States who investigates the connections between child abductions and international adoptions. Directors Jialing Zhang and Nanfu Wang craft a film at once deeply personal and far-reaching to break the silence around a painful past.  ST

One Child Nation