Anti-China protest film strikes a chord in Taiwan

A FILM about the turbulent anti-government protests that brought Hong Kong to a halt in 2019 has broken a box office record in Taiwan as its highestgrossing overseas Chinese-language documentary.

Revolution of Our Times, directed by Kiwi Chow, a Hong Kong filmmaker, earned more than $560,000 (£430,000) less than two weeks after it premiered in Taiwan.

Among the film’s supporters is Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s president. In a Facebook post, she said it revealed that young people in Hong Kong were united in their belief in democracy and freedom and urged the public to see it.

The documentary charts the progress of Hong Kong’s civil unrest in 2019, which began with mass protests, and snowballed into wider demands for universal suffrage and an inquiry into alleged police brutality.

The protests stopped in July 2020, after Beijing imposed a draconian national security law that carried heavy jail terms for anything the authorities deemed subversive.

Mr Chow, who remains in Hong Kong, has been unable to watch his own documentary in the city’s cinemas and his film crew remains anonymous.

The documentary has been screened in Vancouver, which has a sizeable Hong Kong diaspora. Some 3,000 tickets for 14 screenings reportedly sold out within an hour.

The film prompted emotional scenes in the audience, the South China Morning Post said. “Some wept throughout, others chanted the protest slogan ‘Hong Kong, add oil,’ and at the end many stood and sang the unofficial protest anthem