An award-winning documentary about the effects of globalisation on Chinese families will screen at the Bermuda Documentary Film Festival this weekend.

'Last Train Home' highlights the Zhangs, a family of migrant workers who have little to no rights.

Each spring 130 million Chinese migrant workers journey to their villages for the New Year's holiday in the world's largest human migration.

This is their only trip home for the year.

Director Lixin Fan, formerly a television journalist at CCTV in China, spent time with the Zhang family. They left their children with relatives to find work in the city 16 years ago. In a bitter irony, their hopes for the child's future is undone by their absence.

The film won the Best Documentary Film award at International Documentary Film Amsterdam, which is widely considered the world's top documentary festival.

It also shared the Best Feature Award at the One World Media Awards.

Mr. Fan's decision to choose the plight of migrant workers in China is because of the shocking poverty that they face.

He said: "I was born to an average family. I went to university in my hometown, so I never actually had a personal experience of migrating.

"Back in the days at CCTV when I travelled, I was constantly concerned and often grieved by the shocking poverty and misery across the country's vast rural land, submerged under the glamour of the modern metropolis. "I started to realise that the country's millions of migrants, the very contributors to today's prosperity, were denied many basic social necessities.

"They have to bear this great grief of constant separation from their loved ones.

"I decided I had to make a film to document this unique group against the backdrop of a changing country."

He visited more than 30 factories in the city of Guangzhou before he met the Zhangs.

"In the beginning, they were cautious about discussing their family lives, but I revisited them many times in the following weeks and we became friends.

"Eventually they agreed to the shooting. I felt very lucky to know them and was most grateful for their kindness and openness with me and the crew."

He continued: "They were so generous to let us enter every part of their lives for years.

"Our friendship grew as time went by. The crew call the man 'brother Zhang' and his wife 'sister Chen'. We were like one big family, trudging through factory life."

The migration of the peasant work force started in the early 80s when China first opened its economy. The influx of foreign investment created numerous factory towns in the southern coastal regions. "A soaring demand for labour lured millions out of their farmland to work in factories," said Mr. Fan. "Also with the loosening of the country's long-standing household registration system, people started to move around to find opportunities to better their lives.

A low wage and lack of rights prevents them from bringing their families from the villages to the cities, even after decades of work."

The general trend of migration is from the underdeveloped western part of the country toward the more developed eastern and southern coastal areas.

Improving the country's overall transportation system is on Beijing's priority list, he explained. "The fact is, no matter how many roads you build, it's just impossible to transport such a large amount of passengers all at once in one direction.

"A more rational solution is the implementation of labour law, granting the migrant workers the social care and support they deserve, allowing their families to move to the cities. China has set a goal to urbanise half of its 1.3 billion population by 2020, and 70 percent by 2050."

The most significant lesson that he learned during the making of this film was that it is importance of having a candid relationship between the filmmaker and the subject.

"It is essential to making a strong and truthful representation of life. During the production, the crew and the subjects talked about everything together. I sensed as a filmmaker that you can't only think of what you can get from your subject, you have to share your own ideas and emotions. "Many times, I got great footage when I felt I was with my subjects in their emotional world. I live the moment with my subjects my heart feels their pain, their love, their sorrow and courage. But at the same time, my mind still keeps my rational thinking."

'Last Train Home' screens Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute as part of the Bermuda Documentary Film Festival.

Tickets are available now at www.bdatix.bm. A trailer from the film can be seen at www.bermudadocs.com.