Anyone
who still held to the illusion the People’s Republic of China was a classless
society will stand corrected by the extreme economic stratification of the nation's rail
travel. There is a very definite class hierarchy and the respective accommodations
vary accordingly. The train is kind of-sort of a metaphor, but it is also a
rather cinematic setting for J.P. Sniadecki’s observational documentary The Iron Ministry (clip here), which screens
during the 52nd New York Film Festival.
In
many ways, Ministry functions as a
perfect companion film to Lixin Fan’s Last Train Home, but it is not nearly as depressing. Granted, there are literal
throngs of people crammed into the lowest class compartments, many of whom are
likely facing some pretty grim circumstances. The conductors also uniformly seem
to be officious jerks. However, there is a whole lot of life going on
throughout the trains Sniadecki filmed.
In
fact, some of the most fun seems to be going on where the lower middle class
meets the upper rabble. For a fly-on-the-wall ethnographic film, Iron is surprisingly funny, especially
the devilish kid cracking morbid jokes about the government’s population
control policies. If he is the future, the Party is in trouble.
Frankly,
it is hard to say whether the film inspires optimism or not. In one scene, an
informal group of passengers start to criticize the corruption and control of
the Communist government only to somewhat walk it back shortly later and then
creep it forward a little. At least, Sniadecki captures a sense of the country’s
cultural and religious diversity, broadening viewers’ perspective in small but
telling ways.
