February 24-March 6

The collapse of systems, whether they be environmental, financial, or legal, have led to some of the most serious human rights abuses we have witnessed in this first decade of the twenty-first century. Lixin Fan's powerful documentary debut Last Train Home shows cracks in the seams of the social fabric as thousands of Chinese migrant workers move from traditional villages, where values are passed through generations, to factory cities, where they labour endlessly and anonymously in the hope of breaking through their poverty and providing a better life for their children. The risk in this, evident in the film, is that children are growing up without parents and must plan for their future alone.

Children are the central focus in two other films in this year's Human Rights Watch International Film Festival. Back Home Tomorrow follows two children who have suffered collateral damage from conflicts older than they are. Both are in urgent need of complex medical care, which is unaffordable and distant. Escaping these conditions becomes the alternative, and Firat Ayverdi embodies this desire as Bilal in Philippe Lioret's Welcome. Leaving Iraq and a past of torture and pain, he is singular in his vision to move to England to rejoin his girlfriend and start his adult life with new promise away from his war-torn youth.

Living with a loved one free from persecution is also the central theme of Be Like Others. Gender in Iran means defined and often restrictive roles in society. Becoming women is the only choice for young gay men deemed by the state to be transsexual—and thus candidates for sex-change operations. Following men as they opt for this procedure, this riveting documentary exposes Iran's "solution" to not recognizing homosexuality as part of its society.

The struggle for the rights of women remains a critical area of concern in many parts of Africa, and three films this year show how women in South Africa, Rwanda, and the Congo have worked together to move beyond their painful histories. Tapologo shows HIV-infected women transforming their own experience into a source of help for others, while My Neighbor, My Killer and The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo expose