Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl

Directed by Joan Chen

Produced by Good Machine, Whispering Steppes

A harrowing portrait of a young girl's exploitation and trauma during China's Cultural Revolution, told with unflinching emotional and political gravity.

Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.