They
are like children in a Dickens novel, but they live in contemporary Mainland
China. Due to social prejudices, the children of convicted criminals are
frequently shunned by their extended families and left at the mercy of the
state. Thousands of these despised and dispossessed kids have found shelter in
Sun Valley, a communal orphanage founded by Grandma Zheng, a former prison
guard-turned social worker. We see life in Sun Valley through the eyes of
several recently arrived and long-term residents in Kaspar Astrup Schröder’s Waiting for the Sun (trailer here), which screens
during the 2017 AFI Docs Film Festival.
Evidently,
the father of the Zhang Siblings (twin teen daughters and a younger son) really
committed the murder he was convicted for. That is not always a given. There is
no denying his remorse, at least with respect to his children. Since their
mother deserted them at an early age, he has been the trio’s sole support. Sun
Valley is pretty much their only option—and it will help that they will still
have each other.
The
triplets are largely in the same boat, but they are even younger. In their
case, it was their long-abused mother who finally killed their violent father—again,
there are several other such “Burning Bed” cases represented in Sun Valley.
Yet, the most heart-breaking case has to be five or six-year-old Strawberrry,
whom the police took into custody when they apprehended the human trafficker trying
to sell her.
This
film is beyond Dickensian. None of these kids deserves their fate, yet they are
bearing the brunt of their parents’ sins. Of course, their victimization
compounds with their inevitable issues of guilt and abandonment. Granted,
Grandma Zheng and her senior staff seem to be on the side of the angels, but we
still witness a fair amount of bullying in Sun Valley, as well as some shocking
abuse committed by junior employees.
Frankly,
Waiting could be the most devastating
critique of both Mainland social attitudes and the Communist government ever
filmed. AS far as the audience can see, the nation has virtually no safety net
and precious little more compassion for its most vulnerable children. Any claims
of solidarity and equity the legal and welfare systems might make wither in the
face of Schröder’s vérité indictment. Wisely, he keeps himself completely out
of the picture, opting instead to faithfully record reality for the Sun Valley
residents unvarnished and unfiltered.