Down from the Mountains

Deep in the misty mountains of Liangshan, in the southwestern part of China, lives a family of 3 kids raising themselves.

The oldest, a 14-year-old girl named Wang Ying, tries her best to be the sole caretaker of her two younger siblings – Wang Jie and Wang Bing.

They are among an estimated 9 million “left-behind children” raising themselves in the Chinese countryside.

Their parents work at a factory assembling headphones in Guangzhou, far from the mountains. Both parents are without education, both cannot read, write or do more than basic calculations.

To them, education is the golden ticket out of a poverty stricken life – something they both wish fully for their own kids.

Down from the Mountain showcases one family’s poverty stricken life, out of millions with the same lifestyle, from one of the poorest places in China.

A place where hardship joins hands with sadness and where every effort is focused on surviving.

Although living a hard life, 14 year old Wang Ying gives her best and follows a mindset towards improvement.

It might be tiring now but the more you study, the easier it will get. If you keep trying, you will succeed.

As for how the family is doing today, filmmaker Max Duncan wrote the following:

A lot of people have asked how the family is getting on since the film, and the answer is: much better than before, but life continues to be complicated. Their mother Jiajia hasn’t gone back out to work for long periods (she did leave to work on a harvest for a spell), while the family is relying on one income from their father. Wang Ying no longer has to take care of her younger siblings in the same way, and they are all in school and working to give themselves more choices than their parents had.

Down from the Mountains
  • Info
  • Release date2018
  • Full runtime
  • Director(s)Max Duncan