Portée par une propagande massive, la politique de l’enfant unique en Chine a été appliquée de 1979 à 2015 avec intransigeance. Terrifiant les parents pendant plus de trois décennies, les sanctions et les punitions ont eu un impact désastreux sur le taux de natalité. Rompant le silence, les réalisatrices américaines Nanfu Wang et Jialing Zhang dévoilent le sort de dizaines de milliers d’enfants tués, abandonnés ou enlevés, ainsi que l’ampleur du traumatisme.

China ended its one-child policy in 2015, but the ramifications of the decades-long law are still reverberating throughout the country in traumatic and haunting ways. Inspired by the birth of her own son, co-director Nanfu Wang returns to her village where questions posed to family members about the policy lead to grim revelations about forced sterilization, property destruction, child abandonment, and human trafficking that were openly practiced. Chilling and complex, One Child Nation reveals the horrific measures taken by its citizens, fed by propaganda, that have long been covered up.