Little Moth

In the tradition of Dickens, a desperately poor couple, Luo Jiang and Guihua, agree to adopt 11-year-old Xiao Ezi (Little Moth). Xiao Ezi has temporarily lost the use of her legs from a blood poisoning disease and the couple hopes to utilize Xiao Ezi as a beggar to make money. What begins as a heartless act of commerce becomes a layered story of human relationships. Conflict grows as the couple visualizes different roles for Xiao Ezi in their lives: Luo sees her as a vehicle to ease his financial woes; Guihua as the child she never had. The “investment” is paying off for everyone until competition arrives in the form of Xiao Chun, a one-armed boy, and his “father” who see Luo and Xiao Ezi as impinging on their “turf.” Shot with a hand-held digital camera, LITTLE MOTH provides a harsh picture of human expendability and exploitation in impoverished contemporary China. (In Chinese with English subtitles) – CCP