XIAN, China -- When "Black Bean" was 4 years old, his mother and her lover stabbed his father to death. The lover was executed for murder and the mother was sentenced to 15 years in prison as an accessory to the crime. Yet the little boy's nightmare had only just begun. Reviled by the whole village, including many relatives, he was abused by adults and children alike.

"I cried while I was filming him," remembers Li Yaming, a documentary maker who trekked to Black Bean's remote village in Shaanxi Province, northwest China. "At 5, he was under a meter tall, with severe burns, scars and wounds all over his tiny body. His right leg was crippled, either from being beaten or from a fall he had while minding goats. Some of the villagers said Black Bean would die if he stayed there."

His mother cried when she saw how her son had changed since she was jailed. Again, Li and his camera were on hand to capture the moment when the scarred little boy first limped into his mother's prison in the provincial capital of Xian. Yet the tears were mixed with relief -- and overwhelming gratitude to maverick prison officer Zhang Suqing.