Breaking the Wall

Directed by Lee Hui-jen and filmed over seven years, Breaking the Wall centres on Peter Huang, a central figure in the Taiwan independence movement, and looks back over half a century of his life and his part in the democracy movement. Starting from Huang’s later years, the film re-examines the choices he made within the currents of history and his unchanging convictions about freedom, Taiwanese identity and democratic values.

Through rare archival footage, interviews and long-term observational filming, it presents not only Huang’s life but the course of Taiwan’s democratisation, and how a generation of political actors held to their beliefs between ideals and circumstance. As the body and the memory of its subject grow old, his commitment to freedom and justice becomes clearer, leading the audience to reconsider history, memory and what passes between generations.

Screenings of this film