Documentary about pupils of the martial arts school Shaolin Tagou in Central China.

Picture gallery

Inigo Westmeier tells the story of three girls training at the largest Chinese martial arts school, Shaolin Tagou. Far away from their parents, Xin Chenxi (9) and Chen Xi (15) fight their way through every day, which is marked by discipline, rules and hard training. 17-year-old Huang, on the other hand, lives in Shanghai; she couldn't take the drill at school and fled back to her parents.

In his documentary, Inigo Westmeier offers an in-depth look into daily life at China's largest martial arts school, Shaolin Tagou, at which around 26,000 pupils receive training. Drachenmädchen is unsparing and critical in its depiction of the school's hard and performance-oriented program, which includes insufficient heat, bad food, injuries from training, no privacy and beatings.