• Director(s):

    GRAPPE (MARJOLAINE)

  • Producer(s):

    ARTE GEIE, ORIENT EXPRESS FILMS

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    2014

  • Language(s):

    German, English, French

  • Rights:

    TV, NON-THEATRICAL, INTERNET

In China, they are called “heihaizi”, literally “black child”, and are hidden. They are not allowed to go to school, apply for a job, open a bank account or even board a train.

Their “crime”: being a second-born child in the country of the One-Child policy. Thirty years after the implementation of population control, the policy is becoming more flexible, with an increasing number of exceptions, but China does not forgive children born “in excess”. There are allegedly 13 million of them. It is a taboo subject. What sort of a life awaits these children who were denied the right to be born? What recourse do they have? Why are they being cast aside from society when the issue of demographics in China has changed? After a lengthy investigation, certain “heihaizi” agreed to talk. They live anonymously in Beijing, Shenzhen and in remote villages, where family planning is still tightly controlled, for the purpose of preventing illegal births and blackmailing guilty families for being “too large”.