All My Sisters focuses for the most part of on two young women who happen to be the director's nieces (Film review)

  

Advertising for the 50th Hong Kong International 

Film Festival hanging on the railings of an overhead bridge  

 

All My Sisters (Austria-France-Germany-Iran, 2025) 

- Massoud Bakshi, director and co-producer (with five others)

- Part of the HKIFF's Documentary Competition program 

 

The first film of the 50th Hong Kong International Film Festival that I viewed 18 films ago was Woman and Child, an Iranian cinematic offering.  The final film of those I chose to watch also hails from Iran.  (All My Sisters is officially listed as four country co-production but is very recognizably an Iranian work.)  

 

To some extent, this is not something that's extraordinary as the Hong Kong International Festival has long programmed offerings from that Middle Eastern country (and, in fact, I'd go so far as to say that it's been a big champion of Jafar Panahi over the years.)  At the same time though, I figure this is also a reflection of Iran having been in the news in recent months (even before the Iran-USA War commenced); and the focus on Iranian women in the films (I think also of Past Future Continuous) selected for this edition of the HKIFF reflecting this.

 

Of course this is not to say that the likes of All My Sisters got selected by the Hong Kong International Film Festival as a "pity vote".  Because it genuinely is an interesting documentary work; one that is the result of filmmaker Massoud Bakshi training his camera on his two nieces for a couple of decades or so and then putting together home videos that, individually, can seem rather ordinary but collectively make for an interesting portrait of two sisters growing up and coming of age in Tehran under the rule of the Mullahs.

 

When we first see Mahya and Zahra in All My Sisters, they are sans hijab as they are still young -- and, as Massoud Bakshi stresses, in the company of family.  Even while it's clear that they are living in Iran, they still can seem like generic carefree preteens similar to girls in their age group in various other parts of the world as they happily listen to what's emanating from cassette players, playing with Barbies at home, and swinging on equipment in public playgrounds.

 

But at the first sign of puberty, the headscarves get put on.  Also, their religious grandmother starts trying to get them more interested in the Quran and Islam in general.  And there is a distinct and growing sense that their lives will be more restricted and less carefree.  (It would have been interesting for there to have been a parallel coverage of Mahya and Zahra's male contemporaries.  But the glimpses we see of the men as well as boys, who can go about their lives with much less covering, already says quite a bit.)

 

Something that is stressed more than once in All My Sisters is that what's shown in the film is shown with the consent of Mahya and Zahra.  Which makes it really surprising, then, that we see them being among the Iranians who take part in the "Women, Life, Freedom" protests.

 

At the same time, this helps makes the title of the film make sense.  In that, for a good part of it, I thought it would have been more appropriately entitled "My Two Nieces".  But when Mahya and Zahra are depicted and looked upon as representative Iranian women, than the chosen title of All My Sisters makes quite the political statement about Iranian women and society as a while indeed.

 

My rating for this film: 7.         

The alternative Silent Friend gets one looking at plants in different ways! (Film review)

 

The Hong Kong International Film Festival screening of 

Silent Friend that I attended had a post-screening Q&A

with its Hungarian director and Hong Kong star 

 

A more close-up shot of Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Ildikó Enyedi
 

Silent Friend (Germany-Hungary-France, 2025)

- Ildikó Enyedi, director and co-scriptwriter (with Tina Kaiser and Corinne Le Hong)

- Starring: Tony Leung Chiu-wai,  Luna Wedler, Enzo Brumm

- Part of the HKIFF's Galas program 

 

My paternal grandmother was a vegetarian while her husband was not. At a family dinner one day, after she tut-tutted over my grandfather enjoying eating meat, he asked her: "How do you know plants don't have feelings too?  They are living things too, after all!"    

 

For some reason, that conversation stuck with me all these years.  And I got to thinking about it again while viewing Silent Friend, Ildikó Enyedi's mystical-leaning film in which various plants prominently feature and (even) get mentioned in the end credits alongside the cinematic offering's human cast and crew.  This not least because I could imagine this alternative movie's director or at least one of the main human characters in this rather fanciful movie sharing my grandfather's views about flora!

 

Set on a Germany university's leafy campus, Silent Friend tells the story of a trio of individuals who share the same space at various points in time -- not with each other but a giant gingko tree that is lovingly lensed (and turns out to even have some "stunt doubles"!).  Tony Leung Chiu-wai (in his first ever European film appearance) plays his namesake, a Hong Kong neuroscientist who finds himself locked down on a near empty campus in the lockdown days of the Covid pandemic. Unable to work with his usual research subjects (human babies), he decides to conduct his research on brainwaves on a gingko tree -- and, in the process, attracts the attention and suspicion of a stranger (played by Sylvester Groth) who literally as well as metaphorically doesn't speak his language.

 

Although Tony does talk (including via video calls) to other humans (including a fellow scientist essayed by Léa Seydoux) from time to time, he seems on the introverted side.  This also is the case with Hannes (played by Enzo Brumm), a student at the same university in the segment of Silent Friend that is set in 1972.  And while he, too, encounters the gingko tree that Tony conducts experiments on, the plant that Hannes actually spends more time with -- and conducts his own experiments on, with truly startling results! -- is a potted geranium that belongs to his housemate-crush.

 

If truth be told, the section of Silent Friend that was set in 2020 seemed over indulgent at times while Hannes came across as rather weedy and was the least compelling to me of the film's three main human characters.  In contrast, I was consistently absorbed by the section of the movie that was set in 1908 and is centered on the first female student accepted into the university's biology department. 

 

Grete (portrayed by Luna Wedler, whose performance won the Marcello Mastrioanno award for Best Young Actor or Actress at the 2025 Venice Film Festival) impresses in an early scene when she is questioned by a sexist old male professor intent on humiliating her.  But it is after she takes on a job (in return for room and board) with a photographer and learns to use a camera that she truly blooms.  (I wouldn't be surprised if the decision to have this section of Silent Friend be in black and white came out of the photographs she shoots looking more arresting in black and white than colour.)

 

I don't think it'll surprise when I state that the best, downright exhilarating scenes in Silent Friend involve the humans in the presence of plants.  What may be a bit more unexpected though is my thinking that there actually is more than one silent friend in this movie; and that while they are indeed plants in the 2020 and 1972 sections, it seemed to me that in the 1908 section, Grete's silent friend may well have been her camera (which allows her to see and depict plants, and herself too, in new, creative ways)?!

 

My rating for this film: 6. 

Two Prosecutors tells a tale that's sadly predictable but chilling all the same (Film review)

 

Poster for the ninth film I viewed at the 

50th Hong Kong International Film Festival 

 

Two Prosecutors (France-Germany-Netherlands-Latvia-Romania-Lithuania-Ukraine, 2025) 

- Sergei Loznitsa, director and co-scriptwriter (with Georgy Demidov)

- Starring: Alexander Kutznetsov, Aleksandr Filippenko, Anatoliy Beliy 

- Part of the HKIFF's The Masters program 

 

For much of Two Prosecutors, one only sees a single prosecutor on screen: Kornev (portrayed by Alexander Kutznetsove, whose nose looks like that of someone who emerged much the worse from a brutal boxing match or game of rugby!), a young government prosecutor only three months into his career.  Naive and idealistic, after coming into possession of a letter written in blood by a political prisoner, he decides to go see and hear the man: a former local party stalwart who had visited and given a speech about truth and Bolshevism at Kornev's law school.

 

Despite the prison head trying to dissuade him from doing so in multiple ways, Kornev stubbornly persists in meeting with a man considered so dangerous that he's been put in solitary confinement far away from other prisoners and watched over by multiple guards.  This despite  Stepniak (essayed by Aleksandr Filippenko) being elderly and physically weak, and, in fact being pretty close to death's door. 

 

It's pretty obvious that Stepniak has been physically tortured, and so badly that his internal organs are badly messed up.  It's less certain why the old Bolshevik ended up being among the victims of what looked to have been a power struggle that saw the NKVD (secret police; precursor of the KGB) infiltrate and take control of the Communist Party apparatus in their city of Bryansk. In any case, Stepniak adamantly maintained that if only his tale was told to Joseph Stalin, he would be freed and wrongs righted.  And asks Kornev to do just that.  Or, at the very least, appeal to someone in the central government over in Moscow to come clean up the locally centered mess.

 

Kornev, an upright, card-carrying member of the Communist Party, agrees to do so.  And journeys to Moscow to report all this to the man who's effectively his top boss: the Procurator General, Andrey Vyshinsky (Anatoli Beliy plays the film's second titular prosecutor, and real life historical figure).  But when they meet... well, let's just say that this scene is as chilling, if more so, than the moments when Stepniak shows Kornev the torture marks on his body as well as arms and legs.

 

Those who know that 1937, the year that Two Prosecutors is set, was the height of what's known as Stalin's Great Terror (or Purge) will have known early on where this film adaptation of a novella by Georgy Demidov, a Soviet physicist-writer-political prisoner was heading.  But it's the journey, rather than the destination, that really matters with regards to this tale. And director Loznitsa masterfully keep's one attention and stokes one's mounting horror regarding how things will end for the honorable Kornev for this gripping work's entire running time.   

 

By the way, that director Loznitsa was unable to make this film in his native Ukraine or Russia tells you speaks volumes about the current state of those parts of the former Soviet Union.  Equally clear is how Two Prosecutors is a strong indictment of the kind of regime that punishes righteous and idealistic folks who seek to do good unto one's fellow citizens. 

 

My rating for this film: 7.5  

Two very different documentaries viewed at the 2026 Hong Kong International Film Festival (Film reviews)

  

Advertising for the 50th Hong Kong 

International Film Festival seen around town

 

Ghost Elephants (USA, 2025)

- Werner Herzog, director-scriptwriter 

- Part of the HKIFF's The Masters program 

 

Some years ago, I was talking to a film programmer about what films are fine to be viewed on a small screen and what needs to be seen on a big one.  At the time, I thought that documentaries and domestic dramas didn't lose as much when viewed on home video than blockbuster epics.  He begged to differ, stating that all films have are best seen on a big screen since that's where they were made to be screened by filmmakers.

 

Over the years, I came to his way of thinking.  And particularly appreciate it when I get to view a film on the truly big screen at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre's 1,734-seater Grand Theatre -- as was the case with Werner Herzog's documentary about the epic journey undertaken in search of an elusive herd of elephants in Angola's hauntingly beautiful as well as ecologically very important Bié (aka Central) Plateau.

 

As is expected of a work by Herzog, Ghost Elephants is not a conventional documentary.  (Though having said this, as a friend noted, it is one of the veteran German auteur's more conventional offerings.)  This particularly so in his injecting and emphasising mystical elements -- by way of the San people (popularly referred to as "Bushmen") whose tracking skills can seem close to supernatural and also a local king's recounting of an ancestral legend involving an elephant that shed its skin -- to his documentation of what's effectively a scientific expedition led by zoologist-conservationist Dr Steve Boyes in search of what could well be currently the largest land animals on the planet and maybe even a previously undocumented elephant sub-species.

 

Something that can be endearing about Herzog is how so much seems to fascinate him.  In Ghost Elephants, it's not just the titular subjects but those who go in search of it, and the peoples of the foreign land that he encounters along the way.  And while the sight of the elephants are hard to ignore when they appear on screen, the Bié plateau along with other views of the African landscape are exquisitely filmed too, and come across as characters in their own right with parts to play in the story being told.

 

Speaking of story: along with the documentation of a magnificent scientific obsession (on the part of Steve Boyes) and the wonders of nature, Ghost Elephants also tell of humans' inhumanity in the treatment of Mother Nature; pointing out that casualties of Angola's so-called "civil war" included wildlife as well humans, and showing archival footage of a 1960s-era elephant hunt that involved shooting at them from a helicopter.  

 

Which has me thinking it's a curious, and lamentable, omission on Herzog's part that he didn't mention in the documentary that the Bié plateau was, as per the Wikipedia entry on it, "deeply affected by slavery, with estimates of as much as half the local population being enslaved in the mid-1800s".  Perhaps it will be the subject of a follow-up work from the filmmaker?  Though, to judge from what one sees in the film, the chances are higher that he will return to Africa to make a work focused on the San people, who he confessed out loud in Ghost Elephants to finding it hard to not over-romanticise!

 

My rating for the film: 7.0 

 

Do You Love Me (Lebanon-France-Germany, 2025) 

- Lana Daher, director and co-scriptwriter (along with Qutaiba Barhamji)

- Part of the HKIFF's Reality Bites program 

 

In the first few minutes of her documentary, Lebanese filmmaker Lana Daher explictly informs the audience of Do You Love Me that this work will not show events taking place in chronological order and that the effect may be disorientating -- but if so, it's on purpose.  What she didn't state in the work itself -- but I think should be clear by way of a look at the offering's title -- is that this also is a film that works best if the viewer engages with it emotionally as well as intellectually.

 

Clearly a labour of love by someone who loves Lebanon, Do You Love Me presents a history of a nation with no national archive by selecting from, and splicing, images and sounds from more than 20,000 hours of audiovisual footage spanning some 70 years.  Seven years in the making, this 75 minute work incorporates news and feature film clips, TV programmes, home videos, personal photographs in an initially dizzying and altogether ingenious way.

 

Through the eyes, ears and work of Lebanese people of various ethnicities, religions, ages and so on, we see the country's complexity, beauty, problems, horrors and humanity.  Viewers are treated to scenes of everyday life, scenes of violence, and even scenes of violence that, tragically, have become everyday.  (And yes, I am aware of what's happening to, and in, Lebanon currently.  Which makes it all the more important that Do You Love Me was made, and bittersweet to view.)

 

Like it does in the country of some 5 million people, Beirut -- where approximately half of the people live -- looms large in the film.  Director Daher does not hide that this city that's the 16th largest in the Arab world is socioculturally divided along religious lines but also shows both the Christian and Muslim sides, in joyous as well as unhappy scenes, and always with humanity.

 

Although it effectively begins with scenes of the sea, it's the sense of humanity that overwhelmingly courses through Do You Love Me.  Mesmerising and increasingly hypnotic, the choices of visuals and music are masterful.  And while I admittedly came away from this work still not knowing enough of Lebanon to love it, I must say that I do feel that I learnt enough to respect the people of Lebanon and feel that they deserve better, including more peaceful and good times than they are currently facing as well as have faced over the years and decades.  

 

My rating for this film: 8.0.    

My 50th Hong Kong International Film Festival-ing kicks off with "Woman and Child" (Iran-France-Germany, 2025)! (Film review)

 

My tickets for the 50th Hong Kong International Film Festival!

 

Woman and Child (Iran-France-Germany, 2025)

- Saeed Roustaee, director and co-scriptwriter (with Azad Jafarian)

- Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi, Soha Niasti, Maziar Seyedi, Fereshteh Sadr Orafaee, Hassan Pourshirazi, Sinan Mohebi

- Part of the HKIFF's Global Vision program 

 

A confession: I did not originally plan to attend a Hong Kong International Film Festival screening of Woman and Child.  Rather, a booking error resulted in my coming by a ticket.  But after seeing that it was directed by the same helmer as Leila's Brothers  (Iran, 2022), which I had viewed -- and got much out of -- at a previous edition of the HKIFF, I decided that the mistake might be a blessing in disguise.

 

Made after Saeed Roustaee had served a six-month prison sentence and a filmmaking ban imposed on him by the Iranian government -- for entering Leila's Brothers in the Cannes Film Festival! -- had been lifted, Woman and Child was made with the approval of the same regime.  Something that I find interesting since this drama centering on a widow with two children who lives with her mother and sister is one that yet another Iranian film that doesn't seem to sugercoat the lives of Iranian people, and their everyday struggles.

 

Mahnaz (portrayed by Parinaz Izadyar) is a hospital nurse who is being romantically pursued by a freelance ambulance driver named Hamid (who comes in the form of Saeed Roustaee film regular, Payman Maadi).  Although Hamid's pressuring her to get married to him causes some stress, Mahnaz seems to harbour genuine affections for him.  And, also, rather inexplicably, her son, Aliyah (played by Sinan Mohebi), who's the most annoying child I've seen in a film since Tan Chui Mui's Barbarian Invasion (Malaysia-Hong Kong-Mainland China, 2021)'s Yu Zhou.

 

So part of me was happy to see him being taken out of the picture fairly early into the movie.  And somewhat inexplicable to me that this development could leave Mahnaz so incredibly distraught that she literally faints at one point in the film.  And, also, becomes not only so emotionally numbed as well as upset that she neglects her much less annoying daughter, Neda (played by Arshida Dorostkar) as well as her own self and others: because, contrary to the title of the film, there's more than one child in the picture.

 

As the reviewer for Variety complained, "none of [Mahnaz's] actions makes the slightest sense". While I agree with that assessment, I'm less in agreement that it's not completely understandable.  Because, well, humans can be incredibly illogical, especially with regards to human relations and when powerful emotions are triggered.  Which certainly is in the case in Woman and Child. (Incidentally, I think that if the title hadn't already been taken, "Woman on a Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" might have been a good one for this movie!) 

 

How you feel about this will undoubtedly affect your overall assessment of this offering that, for me, was involving and actually pretty emotionally gripping throughout.  In addition, I felt that Mahnaz's multi-dimensional interactions with her mother (portrayed by Fereshteh Sadre Orafaee) and younger sister Mehri (played by Soha Niasti) that alternately help to relieve and heal but at other times further threaten to drive her over the edge are fascinating to behold.  

 

More than by the way, I think Woman and Child would have been a better film overall if it had focused more on the females in it as the males are, for the most part, its least watchable characters.  At the same time, the scenes in Aliyah's (all boys) school and the vocational school next door are also very well conceived and shot indeed.  So maybe it's more that the work would have been better served with less of Aliyah and Hamid in the picture; just as Mahnaz would have been better served with less of them in her life!

 

My rating for the film: 8.0  

Hollywoodgate reveals much more about Taliban-ruled Afghanistan than they may have thought was possible (Film review)

  

Director-cinematographer-co-producer Ibrahim Nash'at and 

co-editor Atanas Georgiev at the post-screening Q&A

 

Hollywoodgate (Germany-U.S.A., 2023)

- Ibrahim Nash'at, director, cinematographer and co-producer

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Documentary Competition program

 

In recent years, film censorship has become more of a thing in Hong Kong than previously was the case.  Probably not coincidentally, we've seen a decrease in the number of Hong Kong films screened at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.  (After all, I can think of a number of Hong Kong films that, while screened overseas, no longer can be screened in Hong Kong -- including one that had its world premiere at Cannes in 2021.)      

 

At the same time, many films (still) can be screened in Hong Kong that can't be screened in the countries that their filmmakers hail from and/or they were shot.  I think of offerings by such as Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi (two of which -- This Is Not a Film (2012) and Closed Curtain (2013) -- I viewed at previous editions of the Hong Kong International Film Festival); and, among those screened this year, the likes of Tatami, and this documentary work by Egyptian director-cinematographer Ibrahim Nash'at chronicling daily life in Afghanistan after the Taliban returned to power there.

 

Hollywoodgate takes its name from a complex on the outskirts of Kabul previously occupied by the American military (or, it is speculated, CIA operatives).  Soon after the last American forces left Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban go in to see what's there -- and do so accompanied by Ibrahim Nash'at and his camera.

 

Granted permission to film in Afghanistan, albeit on pretty restricted terms, Ibrahim Nash'at's camera is officially trained for the most part on Mawlawi Mansour, a bushy-bearded Taliban commander who gets named as the Commander of the country's air force.  At great risk to his personal safety (threats to kill him if he misbehaves can be heard being issued by more than one Taliban member), Hollywoodgate's director-cinematographer also manages to capture a lot of other subjects in his frame.

 

Amazingly, Ibrahim Nash'at ended up managing to stay and film for a year in Afghanistan.  Over this time, one is able to see the Taliban evolve from guerillas to a more conventional military force; thanks in no small part to their reappropriation of an estimated US$7 billion worth of military equipment and supplie that the American forces left behind at complexes like Hollywood Gate.  (And while attempts were made to destroy equipment by the Americans, quite a bit of it were found to be repairable by the Afghans, including a rather alarming number of pretty impressive military aircraft -- transport helicopters, fighter jets, bombers, etc.)

 

Somewhere along the way, Ibrahim Nash'at also gained permission to film one of Mawlawi Mansour's junior soldiers, an officer named M.J. Mukhtar who, if anything, appears to have a stronger thirst for violence than his commander.  And also a looser cannon.  Yet the Egyptian documentary filmmaker stuck to spent time with him, including when M. J. Mukhtar drives around Kabul.  In so doing, he manages to film scenes from the car of everyday scenes, such as of people going about marketing -- which may be among the most chilling segments of Hollywoodgate thanks to the glimpses one gets of the terrible lot of women in the Taliban-controlled land.   

A the post-screening Q&A, Ibrahim Nash'at was asked if the Taliban had seen his documentary.  He replied that they had expressed no interest in doing so.  So the chances are that Hollywoodgate will never be screened in Afghanistan, and that probably is for the best.  As I could well imagine some members of the Taliban regretting his having been granted as much access as he was to film -- for what he managed to do is reveal a lot, a good bulk of which is chilling and also tragic indeed.

 

My rating for this film: 8.0.

Kolheisel's Daughters was the first film I viewed at the 2024 Hong Kong International Film Festival (Film review)

  

Tickets for the 2024 Hong Kong International Film Festival :)

 

Kohlheisel's Daughters (Germany, 1920)

- Ernst Lubitsch, director and co-scriptwriter (along with Hanns Kräly)

- Starring: Henny Porten, Emil Jannings, Gustav von Wangenheim

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Restored Classics program

 

It used to be that I'd be able to get a ticket for at least one of the opening films (there usually are two) of the Hong Kong International Film Festival.  For the fourth year in a row though, I was unable to do so -- as tickets for screenings of Hong Kong films (which the opening films tend to be, though there have been exceptions (e.g., in 2018)) tend to get snapped up pretty quickly these days; thanks in some part to there Hong Kong films having reconnected with local audiences in recent years, and also to some extent because people have come to worry that certain local films won't get screened outside of the HKIFF (cf. Stanley Kwan's First Night Nerves (2018)).

 

Thus it was that my HKIFF-ing began on the second day of this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival: with a screening of the 4K restored version of Ernst Lubitsch's silent comedy, Kohlheisel's Daughters; with live musical accompaniment courtesy of the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble.  An adaptation of the play Kohlhiesel's Daughters by Hanns Kräly, Lubitsch's frequent collaborator, this 1920 film went on to be remade three times; a testament to the original's success, and the story of two very different sisters and the main men in their lives striking a chord with audiences of the day.

 

In view of the film now being 104 years old, it's fair to say that Kohlheisel's Daughters show its age; with a storyline that involves daughters requiring their father's permission to marry, characterisations of women that are on the sexist side by today's standards, and a depiction of a travelling salesman that looks to have an anti-Semitic tinge.  At the same time though, the passing of more than a century cannot prevent viewers from admiring the talent of lead actress Henny Porten -- who portrayed not just one but both of Kohlheisel's daughters... and invested them with such distinct personalities that there was no mistaking one for the other!    

 

Porten is first seen as Gretel, a maiden who cares about her appearance and attracts the attention of many men, including Xavier (played by Emil Jannings), who falls so hard for her that he seeks her hand in marriage.  Papa Kohlheisel (essayed by Jakob Tiedke) refuses to let Gretel marry before her rough, tough sister Liesel (also played by Henny Porten) though; leaving Xavier frustrated, until his friend Seppl (played by Gustav von Wangenheim) suggests that Xavier marry Liesel, then acts so awful to her that she will leave him, so he's cleared to then marry Gretel! 

 

Suffice to say that things don't go as Xavier expects.  Still, things do end up in a way that he and a number of others find quite satisfactory!  Speaking of satisfactory: it's actually quite hard for me to see why any woman would want the physically strong but generally oafish Xavier for a husband.  I guess what got a man appearing to be a good catch was very different in 1920s rural Germany to now, even -- I'd wager -- in the same land!   

 

My review for this film: 7.0                   

Revolution of Our Times offers up profiles in courage for the ages (Film review)

A film by Hongkongers that's now viewable 

in Hong Kong (but not Hong Kong cinemas)

Revolution of Our Times (Hong Kong, 2021)

- Kiwi Chow, director

 

Revolution of Our Times is now viewable worldwide on Vimeo, including (for now) Hong Kong!  Kiwi Chow's protest documentary had its world premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and has had a number of screenings worldwide since, including the USA, United Kingdom, Germany, Taiwan (where it was given a theatrical release and became the highest grossing overseas Chinese documentary in Taiwan's cinematic history) and Japan but had hitherto not been viewable in Hong Kong, and stands zero chance of being allowed to be screened in Hong Kong cinemas in the wake of the amendments having been made last October to the film censorship law to allow film censorship on the basis of national security considerations.

 

So while I badly wanted to view the film after hearing of its existence and viewing its trailer on the very day that it dropped on Youtube last July, I had to rely on comments by friends (including the individual behind the Goodbye HK, Hello YVR blog) and reviews from strangers to try to figure out the film's contents, until yesterday.  Upon finally viewing it myself, I now understand why some people were so affected by it (to the point of tearing up more than once during the film's screening) and others left feeling confused and perplexed. 

 

Put another way: you do need some knowledge of Hong Kong -- its history (particularly but not exclusively key events which took place in 2019), geography, society, etc. -- to appreciate what unfolds on the screen  In particular, those who choose to view it are best served if they already know what the following means/involves: The Joint Sino-British Declaration; the extradition bill; June 9th (2019); June 12th (2019); June 16th (2019); July 1st; July 21st (Yuen Long); August 31st (Prince Edward MTR station); October 1st; the siege of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University; and China's national security law for Hong Kong.

 

Revolution of Our Times is divided into several themed chapters (including one looking at Lennon Walls that I appreciated for helping show that the protests didn't just involve mega marches and street clashes between the police and demonstrators), and over two and a half hours long.  If truth be told, there are parts of this documentary work which can seem to drag and could have been more tightly edited. At the same time though, even while this ambitious offering covers so much ground, I found myself wishing it had covered even more.  

 

For example, I think the film would have benefited from also having shown: what happened in Shatin's New Town Plaza mall on July 14th, 2019 (because the visuals involving riot police invading an upscale shopping mall and clashes occuring between them and protestors would have shown up how the riot police (and protests) intruded into normal life); the "singing in malls" protests of late 2019 (to emphasise that peaceful demonstrations were still happening months into the protests); and the November 24th District Council elections (the last democratic elections Hong Kong had and may well ever have).  So, yes, it's an imperfect work.  But, given the circumstances of its creation, I don't feel I can be too harsh about it.

 

In any event, it's inevitable that Kiwi Chow had to be selective about what to include and what to leave out.  The choices he made as to whom -- not just what -- to focus on are also interesting.  More specifically: while recognisable public figures -- almost all of whom are currently behind bars or have gone into exile -- like former journalist Gwyneth Ho and law professor Benny Tai (who are interviewed in the film) appear in Revolution of Our Times, a good amount of time is spent on a number of protestors whose identities are not revealed and faces are blurred, go by monikers like "Nobody" as well as "Mom" and "Dad", and are shown to have specific roles in the protests (e.g., as "frontliners", providers of "get away" transport and those who disseminate information about such as the whereabouts of police near the scene).  

 

Revolution of Our Times also spends time on and with three individuals who might be said to be ordinary citizens but who I found to be extraordinarily courageous and caring.  Anyone who followed the 2019 protests knew about "Grandpa Chan", the elderly farmer turned member of the Protect Our Kids Campaign, a religious group that seek to act as protest mediators, but the film's audience get to hear him explain his motivations behind his doing what he did as well as to see him in action up close.       

Then there's social worker Jackie Chen, who I first saw in impressive action -- in the company of now exiled politician Ted Hui (who's in the news today for being found guilty of contempt of court, for fleeing Hong Kong!) -- in another 2019 protest documentary, Taking Back the Legislature, but who gets to speak directly to the camera in Revolution Of Our Times as well as is shown trying to negotiate with the police.  And thirdly, there's a young man who goes by the moniker "Morning" but whose face is not pixellated in the film, who was the very medic whose anguished cries to be let in to help people inside Prince Edward MTR station on August 31st, 2019, I will never forget.   

Along with Gwyneth Ho (whose live recordings inside Yuen Long MTR station on July 21st, 2019, are a testament to her courage while that done inside the Legislative Council on July 1st, 2019, show her journalistic dedication), these three individuals' actions along with words were some of the most moving parts of Revolution of Our Times for me.  In addition, as far as visuals are concerned, the drone images of the June mega protests along with the demonstrations of "Be water" in action were very impressive indeed.

 

A further word on the visuals: I'm sure that many of the scenes of police brutality and general protest violence will shock those who are seeing them for the first time.  Rewatching some of the footage three years on can still be pretty upsetting.  But what I truly hope people will note and realize after viewing this documentary work is the uneven resources in terms of weapons that the police and protestors had.  This was not a fair fight at all.  One that literally involved one side armed with guns that fired real as well as plastic bullets, tons of tear gas, water cannons and more, and the other with not much more than umbrellas, shields fashioned from such as flotation devices and sticks made of plastic. 

In the cold light of day, it seemed inevitable that the far better equipped and far more powerful would prevail.  But Kiwi Chow is asking for his film's viewers to root for the underdogs.  And I'd wager that he succeeds in doing so.    

My rating for the film: 8.0

A tale of two sentencings: one involving a man who bit off part of another man's ear; the other involving a man found guilty of speech crimes

 
A T-shirt I've not worn in years :S

 

The law courts resumed operations yesterday after the long Easter weekend and the verdict that grabbed the Tuesday headlines involved the sentencing of Joe Chen, the Putonghua-speaking man who -- in one of the most bizarre incidents of 2019 in Hong Kong -- attacked and bit off part of the left ear of then district councillor Andrew Chiu (and BITING OFF part of his left ear), slashed and stabbed another man with a knife, and wounded two others at the Cityplaza shopping mall in Tai Koo Shing one November evening.  

 

Five months after being found guilty as charged by a jury, Chen was sentenced to 14 and a half years in prison; the harshest penalty given thus far to a defendant in a case related to the anti-extradition bill protests.  In view of his being a pro-Beijinger and at least one, if not all, of the people he attacked being identifiably pro-democracy, the lengthy sentence imposed on Chen came as a bit of a surprise.  

 

But I guess even the authorities cannot condone his having bitten off another human being's ear.  And in full view of other people too.  Also, I'm sure it couldn't be swept under the floor that, as Chiu testified in court (and was duly reported in a Hong Kong Free Press piece), "an attempt to reattach his ear surgically had failed. The three other victims of the assault also suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder."

 

Two other sections from the Hong Kong Free Press article that I think worth pointing out: Firstly, "Chen’s lawyer argued that the defendant had no political inclination, but [the judge] said the attacks appeared to stem from arguments deriving from different political views"; and, secondly, "Chiu, meanwhile is also in custody. He is among the 47 democrats facing national security charges over the democrats’ primary election in July 2020".   More specifically, Chiu was one of the 47 activists and politicians arrested on February 28th of last year for having taken part in the July 2020 pro-democracy primaries, and has been denied bail and thus been behind bars all this time while waiting for his trial to properly begin -- in 2023.

 

Speaking of that 47: one of them, Tam Tak-chi, was found guilty of sedition and related charges (including the bizarre "conspiracy to utter seditious words") last month.  Today, the handpicked national security judge sentenced the former People Power vice-chairman to 40 months (i.e., 3 years and 4 months) in jail for what essentially are not much more than "speech crimes".  (Initially scheduled for March 31, Tam's sentencing was delayed after the Judiciary adjourned all court proceedings between March 7 and April 11 owing to Hong Kong’s fifth Covid wave.  A reminder: He has been behind bars since his arrest in September 2020.)

 

Because Tam was the first person in Hong Kong since the British colonial era to stand trial for sedition, under a little-used law reintroduced by the city's pro-Beijing prosecutors, his case received international coverage (including in Britain's The Guardian and Germany's DW) as well as was big news locally.  

 

As Helen Davidson reported in The Guardian: " Prosecutors alleged that [Tam] used anti-police slogans as well as phrases commonly heard at the 2019 protests: “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” and “five demands, not one less” on multiple occasions. His trial saw the prosecution and defence debate the meaning of “liberate” and “revolution” throughout Chinese history."  It thus appears to have been proclaimed that the phrase "five demands, not one less" is seditious, and therefore illegal, not just "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times"!

 

The article quoted Maya Wang, Human Rights Watch’s senior China researcher, as stating that Tam’s sentence "exemplifies the dizzying speed at which Hong Kong’s freedoms are being eroded."  On Twitter, she's also stated that "The sentencing of Tam illustrates the appalling state of #HongKong today: that previously widely accepted activities such as shouting slogans can now result in years of prison."

 

Meanwhile, the DW article includes the following observations: "Since the implementation of the contentious security law, there has been a massive growth in number of activists being charged for "seditious speech." However, Tam was the first defendant in 25 years to plead not guilty go through a full trial. His sentencing is expected to set precedent for a number of upcoming sedition prosecutions."

 

Because he is fully aware of this, Tam has stated that he will appeal the ruling.  As he put it in a social media post (that had to be posted with the help of friends as he has no access to the internet while behind bars), "my sentencing will affect Hongkongers' freedom of speech".  Like Samuel Bickett before him, I have a feeling Tam does not have high hopes that his appeal will be successful; but he still feels a need to make it on principle.  

 

Speaking of Samuel Bickett: he may be back in the US but he's still keeping his eyes on Hong Kong and commenting on legal events here.  Among his Tweets today was one responding to Timothy McLaughlin having reported that there were "[n]otable efforts in court today to keep observers from expressing support for Tam. The seating area inside the court was filmed at all times by two men using a video camera and court workers urged people to be quiet". 

 

Getting right to the point, Bickett asserted the following: "Let’s not split hairs: If the [government] is now filming all who attend court hearings, the goal is to intimidate [and] deter people from attending at all. If people consequently do not feel safe attending, then Hong Kong no longer has fair [and] public hearings as guaranteed by [the] Bill of Rights."  Indeed.

Hong Kong's high Covid death rates, low vaccination rates among the elderly, and continued problematic government messaging

Today's headline news in Hong Kong

 

After three consecutive days of new Wuhan coronavirus case numbers that went past the 50,000 mark (including Wednesday's 55,353, Thursday's 56,827 and yesterday's 52,523), which prompted people to wonder if Hong Kong had reached its testing capacity, the number went down today to 37,529 (of which all but 6 are local cases).  Sadly though, the number of recorded Covid deaths hit a record high today: with today's 220 fatalities showing that a distinct upward trend in fatalities that began on February 10th is very much continuing.

 

Even before today's latest Covid death numbers were released, Hong Kong already had "earned" the distinction of now being the territory with the world’s highest fatality rate for the coronavirus.  And the reason why is something that many people (public health experts, journalists and regular Hong Kongers among them) had forseen months in advance: namely, that Hong Kong had a lower than average vaccination rate for a part of the developed world; and this particularly so with regards to the elderly.

 

This is all particularly frustrating and tragic because it could have been so easily avoidable.  After all, Hong Kong's free Covid vaccination program actually was rolled out back in early 2021, with people over 60 years of age among those given priority (along with such as healthcare staff and staff involved in anti-epidemic work).  But the fact of the matter is that, to quote journalist Oliver Farry, "the Hong Kong government’s passivity in getting the elderly vaccinated and giving them proper information on the vaccines is disgraceful negligence".

 

Before anything else: yes, politics was involved.  As Elson Tong Tweeted: "[Hong Kong] pandemic measures were in part designed to reshape/control public behaviour after the 2019 protests, thus they targeted and were in practice likely to be enforced against young people and their venues. Having been less inconvenienced, the elderly vaccination rate stagnated".  And here's The Economist's Don Weiland on the same subject: "The weaponisation of public health measures in Hong Kong to deny people rights enshrined in the basic law is something that will go down as one of the govt’s vilest moves during this period".   

 

Even if we were to set aside the Hong Kong government's questionable prioritization of the suppression of Hong Kongers over the coronavirus: there's the issue of there just not being very good at communicating with the public.  Take, as an example, its statements about the BioNTech vaccine.  Rather than point out that it actually is the same as the vaccine more internationally well known as Pfizer, the Hong Kong government has tended to refer to it by another name (i.e., BioNTech but also Fosun-BioNTech and Comirnaty).

 

And to compound the problem and cast doubt on the manufacturing origins of the BioNTech vaccine that Hong Kong gets, it has made mention of a "Baxter in Germany" or "a plant in Baxter, Germany" being involved in its production.  Here's the thing: there is NO village, town or city in Germany that's named Baxter.  On the other hand, there IS a sterile fill/finish manufacturing facility in Halle/Westfalen, Germany, that's operated by Baxter BioPharma Solutions and involved in the manufacturing of the BioNTech vaccine.  And that, of course, is the "Baxter in Germany" in question.

 

Truly, there are times when the Hong Kong's particular way with words can be so exasperating (to put it lightly).  Speaking of which: A further eight individuals were jailed for "rioting" by Hong Kong's courts today.  Five of those found guilty were sentenced to three and a half years behind bars, while the other defendants will serve three years and nine months each.  This because the presiding judge, Douglas Yau, had decided that "the case was severe as some protesters threw objects towards the police station, and pointed laser lights at officers."  (I leave you to be the judge as to whether the punishment fits the crime, and what I think of it.)

 

More re Hong Kong's courts: They will temporarily cease operation from next Monday (March 7th) until at least April 11th as a result of how serious Hong Kong's fifth wave has become.  But there of course is no mention of bail being granted bail to those behind bars who haven't been found guilty of anything (because their cases have not gone to trial yet, never mind verdicts having been reached for them).  And ditto re releasing prisoners on health grounds in view of the raging pandemic, including -- or probably especially -- political prisoners like 75-year-old cancer sufferer Koo Sze-yiu (who, it's newly being reported, does not have Covid but still was not physically well enough to attend a court hearing this week). :(

The convictions continue, and persecution but also (attempts at) resistance within Hong Kong prisons

Way too many Hong Kongers have been inside 

vans like this in recent years :(

 

Three more people were convicted today of rioting in the vicinity of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in November 2019.  And no, it's scant consolation that two others standing trial at the same time were cleared of rioting; this particularly since of that duo, one ended up being convicted of possessing instruments fit for unlawful purposes -- specifically, cable ties -- along with one of the trio convicted of rioting.  

 

These convictions came one day after five Chinese University of Hong Kong students were found guilty of rioting at their educational instutition (and -- to add insult to injury -- also of breaching the face mask ban), also in November 2019.  Something that's worth pointing out: it actually wasn't established by the prosecution that the quintet -- who, incidentally, are aged between just 20 to 23 years -- had actually committed any violent acts against the police.  Instead, their having been seen to have "stayed with protesters who threw petrol bombs at police officers on November 11, 2019, with the only explanation being that they had wanted to encourage the protesters to commit acts of breaching the peace" was alone to get them convicted of rioting and, presumably, being handed prison sentences that will be on the lengthy side.  (Their sentencing is expected to take place only next month -- and, yes, they are to be behind bars through then.)

 

A reminder: November 11th, 2019, was the day that a police officer shot another young man at pretty much point blank over in Sai Wan Ho as well as the day that the siege of Chinese U began.  And, a few days later, on International Students Day, as it so happened, there were urgent calls for people at a protest rally I attended that evening to go over to PolyU to help people besieged on its campus.  

 

Those were dark days indeed for Hong Kong but just because the tear gas and street battles have stopped, do not even for a minute think that things are fine here now.  Among other things, consider political persecution and/or prosecution that seems to be just around the corner for seemingly everyone -- be they well known politicians and political activists, respected lawyers, famous entertainers or previously little known speech therapists.               

 

Truly, I've lost count of the number of political prisoners Hong Kong now has, regardless of whether one would include people convicted of offences such as "rioting" or just accused of it and denied bail while awaiting trial.  And I must admit to worrying quite a bit of how they are being treated while behind bars; this especially after learning of such as Tiffany Yuen having been placed in solitary confinement again -- this time with 17 other inmates at Lo Wu Correctional Institution "for allegedly trying to "build up forces and incited others to participate"" and an elite Correctional Services Department response unit known as the Black Panthers and a dog unit having been called in to deal with those women prisoners.    

I know looks can be deceiving but after seeing Tiffany Yuen hugging her beloved Buzz Lightyear plush (in a video showing what the 47 pro-democrats charged with subversion under the national security law for having taken part in a primary election in July of last year did on their last day of freedom prior to reporting to the police as per orders), it's hard to think of her as a hardened physical fighter who would need to be quelled with the help of "Black Panthers" and dogs.  Indeed, it's much easier to imagine her being prone to giving people hugs to comfort them -- which is what, as K Tse recounted in another Tweet, "Yuen was placed in solitary for 10 days last month for"; with the inhumanity of the correctional system further shown by June 4th candlelight vigil organizer Chow Hang-tung -- who now thankfully is out of jail, at least for the moment -- having been placed in solitary for 3 days for sharing stamps with a fellow inmate.   

 

I can't help but contrast Yuen and Chow's treatment in prison with German student and anti-Nazi political activist Sophie Scholl, as depicted in the 2005 dramatized telling of her story, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days.  It may not have been faithful to what actually occured but it surely says something that the prison guards and workers depicted in this feature film set in Nazi Germany appeared more humane than the ones in contemporary Hong Kong!  

 

At the same time, thank goodness that there no longer is capital punishment in Hong Kong -- the way that there was in Nazi Germany, and there continues to be in Mainland China.  And yes, that's one more reason why so many Hong Kongers were opposed to China extraditions.  Also, yes, there are indeed fears now that, with the authorities in Hong Kong looking so much to Beijing for instruction and support, in the not so distant future, the death penalty will be reinstated on this side of the Hong Kong-Mainland China border.