: By focusing on the Yugur people (a small subset of the Uyghur minority), Li Ruijun highlights the disappearance of nomadic traditions and languages.
: The film is a powerful "environmental exposé," illustrating the devastating effects of desertification and climate change on ancestral lands.
: Critics have praised the "masterfully lensed" nomadic road movie for its epic scale, contrasting the smallness of the children against the vast, unforgiving Gansu desert.