Their interactions with the Mainers at Fryeburg are sometimes uncomfortable and sometimes comical, as efforts at cross-cultural communications tend to be. It’s sometimes hard to judge how successfully the Chinese students have been integrated into the daily life of the school. They tend to stick together, and to be regarded with a curiosity that sometimes verges on suspicion. A sign in a common area of one building declares it an English-only zone, which could be interpreted both as an encouragement to develop social and language skills and as an alienating, hostile gesture.

But good will and hard work are the prevailing values of “Maineland.” The portmanteau title maps out a patch of common ground defined by the understanding that education is a path to worldly success. It can be more than that, of course, and the movie hints at complications that are all the more intriguing for remaining largely unstated. One of the dogmas of American schooling is the importance of critical thinking, a slogan dutifully cited by Chinese applicants to Fryeburg in their interviews.