Ximei is a young peasant woman from rural China's Henan Province who contracted AIDS during the government-sanctioned "Black Blood Economy." In the late 1990s, the Chinese government encouraged impoverished villagers to sell their blood plasma for money, literally bleeding people for profit. Blood donors as well as recipients were infected with HIV from contaminated equipment, sparking a full-blown epidemic that affected an estimated 300,000 people, followed by a scandalous c... (Full plot summary below)
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Ximei is a young peasant woman from rural China's Henan Province who contracted AIDS during the government-sanctioned "Black Blood Economy." In the late 1990s, the Chinese government encouraged impoverished villagers to sell their blood plasma for money, literally bleeding people for profit. Blood donors as well as recipients were infected with HIV from contaminated equipment, sparking a full-blown epidemic that affected an estimated 300,000 people, followed by a scandalous cover up. Even as local officials try to terrorize Ximei into silence and close down her halfway house for AIDS victims, she single-handedly fights for these victims to overcome social and legal discrimination and receive proper medication. Her courageous actions and fiery character transform the tragedy of Henan's HIV-infected outcasts into lives of hope and dignity.
Leave your thoughts about Ximei.
| Movie NationRoger MooreXimei makes a quietly compelling heroine, and the filmmakers — who can be seen questioning the men in sunglasses following her around — do her their greatest service in just letting her tell her story, just letting their camera capture the indifference, fear and fury that has been officialdom’s knee-jerk reaction to her cause. |
| Los Angeles TimesKimber MyersThis isn’t simply a damning indictment of the nation; it is a hopeful celebration of one woman’s activism and kindness in the face of her own struggle with AIDS. |
| The New York TimesBen KenigsbergThis isn’t a groundbreaking documentary, but it does pay its subjects the ultimate courtesy, treating them as officials have not: as fully rounded human beings. |
