“...A WINDOW INTO THE HARD TOIL, RACIAL ABUSE AND ISOLATION THE CHINESE MIGRANTS SUFFERED WHILE PURSUING THEIR NORTH AMERICAN DREAMS” —Martha Warboy, Canwest News Service

Lured by BC’s fabled Gold Mountain and the promise of riches, thousands of desperate Chinese workers left their homeland with a dream: to make their fortune in North America by laying a coast-to-coast railroad. Instead they discovered a treacherous undertaking that brought fortune to only a few. They learned that railway building through mountain passes meant a deadly mixture of explosives, iron, rock and wood. Every foot was purchased with muscle, sweat and too often death. Their work saw the Canadian Pacific Railway completed in 1885. It was the last of the great iron roads built in North America, a monumental task that became a tragic and difficult chapter in Canadian history.

Iron Road is the story of the hard-won triumph of a Chinese street urchin named Little Tiger, whose quest for her long-lost father takes her from a fireworks factory in China to a remote construction camp in the Rockies. She falls in love, survives prejudice and treachery, and achieves a bittersweet fulfillment of her quest. A Canadian-Chinese co-production, its A-list cast features Sam Neill, Peter O’Toole and Sun Li.

WARNING: This program contains disturbing images and subject matter. Viewer discretion is advised.