This eerie film follows renowned Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky through China, as he captures the effects of its massive industrial revolution. Burtynsky creates part-stunning, part-horrific art from the materials and debris of 'manufactured landscapes' – quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines and dams. His work in China allows us to witness both the epicentre of industrial endeavour and the dumping ground of its waste.

From its opening scene, an eight-minute scanning shot passing row after row of workers in an almost endless factory, what is impressive about this film is that it reveals the sheer enormity of the landscapes created as a by-product of industrialisation.

The scale continues to surprise as you see Burtynsky at work in some of the most surreal landscapes of the 21st century: the mountains of toxic e-waste in China, where 50 per cent of the world's computers are dumped for recycling; and the Yangtze Valley, where residents demolished their own cities to make way for the Three Gorges Dam.

Sparse narration gives the film a meditative feel and leaves it thankfully free of heavy-handed messages of environmental destruction. Instead, the images speak for themselves, leaving you with the uncomfortable realisation that as we extract things from the environment for technological progress, we leave it in ruins.