China’s railway system is immense, one of the world’s largest. As Sniadecki’s latest film makes clear, it is both a microcosm of the People’s Republic and a world unto itself. Filmmakers have recognized the cinematic potential of train travel since the beginnings of cinema; here, Sniadecki gives himself a structuring principle by confining his camera to the interior of various carriages, rarely even looking out the window. Drawing footage from scores of train journeys filmed over three years, The Iron Ministry begins as a disorienting montage of sounds and sights that encourages us to witness the travelers we meet with fresh eyes and ears. While eventually a sense of China’s class divisions emerges, what resonates most strongly out of the multitude of encounters between traveler and camera is a warm sense of what Sniadecki has called a “cramped and common humanity.”