A TEENAGE LIFE NEAR THE WORLD LARGEST DAM

A luxury cruise boat motors up the Yangtze. In the biggest engineering endeavour since the Great Wall, China has set out to harness the Yangtze with the world's largest mega-dam. Meanwhile at the river's edge Yu Shui says goodbye to her family and turns to face the future, her belongings clutched in a plastic bag. The river provides the epic and unsettling backdrop for “UP THE YANGTZE” (2007, 93mins), a dramatic feature documentary on life inside the 21st century Chinese dream. Stunningly photographed and beautifully composed, the film juxtaposes the sharply observed details of Yu Shui's story against the monumental forces at work all around her.