International Competition

What does the future hold for contemporary Chinese adolescents? This is the central question that director Qiong Zheng pursues while filming three Chinese teenagers from different social backgrounds, regions and mindsets over an incredible six-year period. Yuan Hanhan, a girl from Beijing, drops out of high school at the age of 17. Three years later, bored with her uneventful life in China, she decides to follow her dream to go to Art school in Germany. Will she stay in Europe or follow a different path? Xu Jia, 19-year-old from Hubei Province, is cramming for the annual national college entrance exam for a third year in a row. His dream is to be admitted to a top university but will he be able to fulfil it? Ma Baijuan, a 12-year-old girl from a remote village in Gansu Province, is an enthusiastic primary school pupil. She dreams of being able to earn enough money to support her family one day. However she finds it hard to keep up with her studies and, at 15, leaves school to find a job. What does the future hold for her?