Dream Empire follows Yana, an ambitious young woman who leaves her rural home to pursue the fabled Chinese Dream in Chongqing’s thriving real estate market. Yana opens an agency designed to aid Chinese developers in reaching foreign investors, but she soon discovers that her clients’ expectations—not to mention economic realities—may prove too tumultuous for her dream to weather.

Filmed over several years, Miami-native director David Borenstein’s incisive documentary dissects the chaotic, reckless, often mind-boggling world of the globalized real estate market, showing its merciless effects not only in the abstract, but also on the life of a single, hugely determined individual.

This film is also featured in the 2017 Film Festival’s Florida Focus Film Category.