With his fifth feature, director-screenwriter Li Ruijun continues his exploration of fast-changing China by looking at the continuing shifts recent years have been bringing to both urban and rural lives and sensibilities. Largely unfolding in Shenzhen and its Special Economic Zone but with a key segment set in a village in the north-eastern province of Gansu, the film follows the character of Yaoting (wellknown actress Yang Zishan, appearing in almost every scene and delivering a performance of inner strength and determination), the 20-something daughter of aging migrants. Stuck with an intermittent, menial job at an electronics factory, she attempts to raise fast cash for her family through a series of high-paying (and high-risk) clinical drug trials—something that will soon take its toll on her young but, as we come to discover, already-debilitated body. Tragically, for Yaoting and for countless others among older and younger generations, a decent and dignified life appears to be nothing more than a mirage in the desert. (Davide CAZZARO)