In a Buddhist orphanage in Malawi, a promising young man finds himself torn between two cultures. Enock Alu is one of 300 boys growing up in the Amitofo Care Centre – a Taiwanese nonprofit – where they learn Mandarin, are inculcated with foreign values within the strict discipline of the Confucian value system, and gradually become alienated from their African languages, culture and religion. Set against the disquieting expansion of China’s global influence, this insightful and subtle analysis of the imperial forces of cultural soft power was named Best Documentary Feature by the Youth Jury at the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival.

Advisory: some violence.