AllMovie

Set in rural China, director Gan Xiao'er's Raised from Dust portrays the increasingly important role that the Christian faith plays in the lives of the impoverished Chinese masses. Aunt Lam lives in a rural Chinese village and sings in a small church choir. As she rehearses for an upcoming wedding, her husband lies in a nearby hospital dying of pneumosilicosis -- a common occupational disease caused by breathing brick dust, which is generally fatal. Later, when the couple's nine year-old daughter Sheng-yue is forced out of school because she can't afford the tuition, it appears that the family is in dire straits. Meanwhile, as the struggling family attempts to cope with illness and their daughter's lack of education, Chen Shun-jun constructs a house on a site he hopes will be home to a future railroad.