Set against the country’s bleak provincial wastelands a 13-year-old boy receives a letter from his absent mother and sets off alone in search of her. Leaving his sister and grandfather behind, the boy follows the changing landscapes of the Yellow River. Alone and destitute, he bounces from child slave-labour in a brick factory to a coalmine forever eking out a poor existence. He soon runs away and joins a gang of young thieves and continues his search for his mother, even pushing his way through the inhabitants of an opium den. On his travels, the struggling boy glimpses occasionally a better world despite the many harsh realities of his life in this post-industrial age setting.
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and present. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.
