A Chinese drama about child exploitation that makes its Toronto premiere at Cinematheque Ontario this weekend, Little Moth is an essentially modest work. Yet director Peng Tao never puts a foot wrong as he depicts the story of a very vulnerable little girl and the shockingly selfish elders who surround her. The “little moth” of the title is Xiao Ezi (Zhao Huihui), an 11-year-old who’s lost the use of her legs due to a blood disease that could be cured if any adult were willing to pay for the medicine. Instead, she is sold to a couple who use her to beg on the streets. An organ trafficker, a wealthy altruist and a one-armed boy all come to figure into her tale, though another character is right to assume that “things will turn out badly.”

Made in the semi-improvised, social-realist mode preferred by Peng Tao’s fellow Sixth Gen filmmakers Li Yang and Wang Xiaoshuai, Little Moth may remind western viewers of the most bracing films of De Sica, Bresson and the Dardennes. That the film manages to be suspenseful, moving yet ruthlessly unsentimental points to a level of sophistication belied by its rough-hewn aesthetic. In other words, you’d be wise to catch Little Moth before it flutters away.